I started going to church at the age of 16. During my time as a teenager, I heard dozens of sermons. I must confess that I don’t remember too many of them in particular. But one thing that does stand out to me in special clarity is a story my pastor relayed of a time shortly after he got married.
The pastor stood at the pulpit and drifted to a scene that had taken place early in his married life. He and his wife had gotten into a discussion shortly after he had done something upsetting. She said to him, “You live as though God doesn’t exist.”
Now, I don’t remember what the sermon was over that day. I don’t remember what the Bible passage was or what was preached.
But I do remember that quote.
My pastor, whom I viewed as one who had always been Godly and mature, had just given an account of when his wife called him out for acting as though God isn’t even real. He had even been in full-time ministry at the time. And it made me think.
It still makes me think.
It makes me think because, all too often, I catch myself living as though God were not real. I make decisions without consulting Him. I say things that oppose His heart. I believe things He wouldn’t want a person to believe. I find myself being faithless.
When I look into my heart, I often see a garden full of thistles and weeds – full of selfish desires, of anger, and of ungodliness.
‘My God has a lot of work to do, doesn’t He?’ I say to myself.
In these moments, I am tempted to despair and to give up hope. How can God use me for His work when I fail Him so frequently? How can He even love me? I search my own heart and find that I would lack the patience and the love to put up with such behavior.
If it were not for God, I would be left in my misery.
But it is also in these moments when I am reminded of who God is. I am gently reminded that the God I serve is far greater, far stronger, and far more powerful than my ability to live as though He’s not there.
In 2 Timothy 2:11-13, we read:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.
Read that again.
When we fall short – and we will fall short, make no mistake – we can draw encouragement from this passage. When we catch ourselves living as though God isn’t real, or as though He doesn’t really care and won’t really do what He says He will do, we can look to that last section of the passage.
When we catch ourselves being faithless, we can take counsel here.
‘…If we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself.‘
Just look at the pattern we see.
A — “If we have died with Him… we will also live with Him.”
B — “If we endure… we will reign with Him.”
C — “If we deny Him… He will deny us.”
D — “If we are faithless… He is faithful.”
Throughout this entire block of scripture, we see a pattern.
If we do good, something good will come. If we do bad, something bad will come. You can see that in lines A, B, and C. In A and B, the doing of good results in the receiving of good. In C, the doing of bad (denying Jesus) results in the receiving of bad (being denied by Jesus).
But what about in D? What if we are faithless?
We would expect that Jesus would also be faithless, based upon the pattern. But that’s not what we see.
Instead, we see that Christ remains faithful in spite of our faithlessness. Why? Because he cannot deny Himself.
Wow.
Even in our darkest moments – our times of faithlessness and wandering – Christ stands faithful. He is steadfast. He is above and beyond our ability to hinder Him. As Jesus said in Luke 19:40, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”
In other words, Christ will bring about His will and His Kingdom in spite of our failure.
Do you ever catch yourself praying and longing after Christ, yet still falling prey to sin? Do you ever catch yourself praying fervently one hour, then living as though God isn’t there the next?
I know I do.
There are times when I let the world take over, when I let my own desires run the show. I get uptight, overwhelmed, feeling as though I must do it all, for everything rests on my shoulders. I lose sight of God as the clouds of life roll in.
But then I am reminded – gently, sweetly, and firmly – that the Lord is in control. And it’s ultimately up to Him. Far from letting me drift in my sin comfortably, this gentle reminder brings me back to Him.
As Paul Washer is fond of saying, ‘There are no great men of God. There are only weak and pitiful men of a great and merciful God.’
You see, all the goodness we have comes from God. We have nothing good apart from Him. Every good and perfect gift comes down from Him. The very fact that you’re alive and breathing is a testament to His mercy and His power.
You cannot do anything apart from Him.
And be rest assured, dear reader, that it is only because of God’s direct intervention that we can build His Kingdom. Nobody goes out and singlehandedly builds God’s Kingdom. No one is a spiritual superman or superwoman. No one has it all.
Every man and woman you see that serves God is serving Him because of His power – not theirs.
Every time you see Christ shine through someone, it’s because He is bright enough to blast through the clouds of their fallenness – not because they are just “such good Christians.”
When we are unfaithful to Him – when we forget Him, when the cares of the world sweep over our lives like the tide sweeps over a beach – He remains faithful. He must remain faithful. He is unmoving and unwavering.
So be assured, dear reader, that our God is real. He is more real than the world you see around you, and in the end, only His will and His power will count.
He is more than enough to overcome your weakness. He is more than enough to smash down the stronghold of your sin and bring you into fellowship with Him.
Jesus will bear you on, and He will see to it that His good work in you is brought forth to completion.