The Challenge of Life With God

Lesson From King David

Life with God can be hard, really hard. Indeed, because of how hard it is — and this will seem odd coming from a pastor — I don’t recommend trying it casually. It’s the most rewarding relationship you’ll ever have; it will change you in the most remarkable and beautiful ways, but you will suffer along the way.

Thinking about the challenges of life with God brought King David to mind. Fascinated by his reputation, “man after God’s own heart,” I began to read the Psalms as if they were his journal. Boy oh boy, did he suffer and struggle. Consider this section from Psalm 25:

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me. Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.”

Why would anyone say, “do not let me be put to shame”? Presumably because they felt shame creeping up on them.

Why would they pray “do not let their enemies exult over me”? Maybe their enemies were in pre-exulting phase, with smug looks on their faces.

If you read the bio of David and his writings, you’ll find a complex life with many tremendous ups and terrible downs. One gets a sense that the field would’ve leveled off significantly if he would’ve settled for a casual life with God. But when you set out to be close with him, you can expect these great waves. As it says in Acts, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

But why?

Because God is interested in who we are becoming. That’s what we and he get out of our lives. The eternal kind of life isn’t a destination, but it’s a type of life that God wants to give us until we are like reservoirs overflowing with it. And since our lives have been horribly bent out of shape by Sin, the reshaping into the image of Christ can be painful.

CS Lewis, as usual, provides a helpful illustration:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

This is why the David’s, Paul’s, Elijah’s and other more recent saints inspire me. Their palatial lives remind me of what God is up to, amidst the pain and suffering of life. When I’m in a season where I can only see the problems looming overhead, threatening to put me to shame or exult over me, their lives remind me that, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Why am I writing this?

Recently I looked through my own journal from this year. It began with so much hope, excitement, and anticipation. There were so many big goals listed there. But as the pages went on challenges appeared, some of the goals were delayed, others were dashed. Things have not gone as planned.

That’s when my reflections on David and his roller coaster of a life came to mind. I remembered that in the midst of it all, he was known as a man for God. Not because he did great things for him (which he did), nor because his devotion to him led to a perfect life (it didn’t, many times over!), but because he diligently aimed his life — good and bad — towards the God he loved, because God is where he ultimately placed his hope.

Aiming your life at God is a hard discipline to practice, it means intentionally looking beyond the joys and pains to the One working behind and within them. As we live, as John Wesley’s prayer said, lives that are “not for [ourselves], not for the world, but for [our] God,” the God our lives have been aimed at will complete his perfect work in us.

After David prayed that God would not let him be put to shame, he asked this:

Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.

I’m learning on the Way.

Have a good day.