A leading Christian psychologist has raised the question “When the pressures of life wake you up at 2 in the morning and you sit quietly wondering what to do next, what do you do? And then this insightful brother says you ask and answer seven crucial questions- and you will have the answers. I have felt led to revamp these questions a bit and give answers, based upon the Bible, the history of the saints and my own experience:
- Who is God in human experience? Theologically we know that “God is the only Potentate who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen” -1 Timothy 6:16, but experientially, He is as Jonathan Edwards said, “A flowing energy of radical holy love” who desires to communicate His life to us.
- What is God up to in our lives? He is relentlessly determined to make me like His Son – at whatever cost to me because of my unholy nature and whatever cost to Him because of His holy nature.” (Larry Crabb)
- Who am I? Scripture declares that we bear the image of God, and no more important revelation is found in the Bible. “And whatever else that means at the very least it means I have the capacity to want God more than I want any other conceivable good – to want to know Him and enjoy Him on His terms whether my spouse divorces me, my cancer of 10 years ago returns, or I endure long seasons of dryness and frustrations. I often remind myself that I bear God’s image.”[1]
- What has gone wrong with me? The Bible calls it “Harmartiology,” which means to miss the mark God intended for me, better known as “sin.” Note the middle letter in sin is “I,” which is the very expression of sin. J.I. Packer says each of us is afflicted with an “anti-God virus” until our capacity even to want God has been corrupted and perverted.
- What has God done about my predicament? “The answer is His wonderful grace. The Father sent the Son by the Spirit to be a new kind of human being. God had in mind a created person who never for a moment, under any circumstances, lived to preserve or protect His own sense of well-being. So God sent the eternal Son to become a human being, to live out His dream of a new humanity – a Man who would fully entrust Himself to God even while soldiers were putting nails in His hands. Jesus felt God’s pleasure for being the perfect Man, but He endured God’s wrath for the fact that I turned away from God, something that Jesus never did. Jesus died and rose again so that I could be forgiven for being so insanely foolish as to think for a moment that there is a greater good to be enjoyed by turning away from God so I can lead an easier life. When I think about what God has done about this severe sin problem for which there is no solution but the cross, I worship in wonder as I hum “Amazing Grace.”[2]
- What does the Holy Spirit desire to do in my life? “I believe He is detaching me from dependence on every source of joy other than being included in the divine Father-Son relationship. So what do I depend on for my joy? That my ministry goes well? That my next book sells? That my counseling goes well and people say, ‘You did a great job, Larry. Thanks so much’? I do get joy from these things, but if I am depending on them, I am an idolater. And at two in the morning, when I am feeling alone and desperate and empty, I realize that the Holy Spirit is separating me from all of my idols, such as enjoying ministry success more than communion with God. The Spirit is taking me into spiritual misery to empty the space in my heart that I have filled with myself, so He can fill it with the life of Jesus.”[3]
- How do we cooperate with the Holy Spirit? We must realize the stupidity and wickedness in trying to handle matters on our own, and then surrender to the truth that nothing works as it should in this world, and we abandon ourselves to the Holy Spirit as He advances the Kingdom through our weaknesses. The key is surrender to the Holy Spirit. The opposites and hindrances are to commit or partial obedience. Permit me to show the difference between commitment and surrender. Suppose Jesus was standing before you and was asking you to surrender all to Him. He would then pass to you a sheet of blank paper. He could ask you to make a list of the things you would commit to do and sign your name at the bottom- that would be commitment. He would not do this because this would be only those things you chose to do. What He would do would be to hand you the blank sheet of paper and ask you to sign your name at the bottom and He would fill in the top Himself – that would be surrender. Have you surrendered?
[1] Larry Crabb, Veritas, Vol. 7, No. 1, “Finding Hope at two in the Morning” Dallas, Texas: Dallas Theological Seminary, Jan.2007, p. 4.
[2] Ibid, pp. 5-6.
[3] Ibid., pp. 6-7.