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When Faith Doesn't Feel Good Mark 1:9-13 Lent 1 Sun March 5 06

Read the cards with the questions...especially the kids! ☺

One question jumped out at me as I reflected on the Gospel reading for

today: "Why can't my faith be stronger"? Now that's a loaded

question...loaded with personal circumstances that need to be explored, and

loaded with feelings of frustration, and maybe even guilt or shame.

This is a question that has been asked and submitted IN FAITH. And I

believe it's a question almost everyone here has asked at one time or

another--I certainly ask this question! Why isn't my faith more robust, more

confident in all circumstances--more joyful? Is there something wrong

with me when I feel dry, and burned out, and lonely, and lost in my

relationship with the Lord... What does the Bible have to say about that?

+Sometimes faith will lead you to a place where it doesn't feel good!

"At that time Jesus came from Nazareth In Galilee and was baptized by

John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven

being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove...At once the

Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert 40 days, being

tempted by Satan." Mark 1:9-10; 12-13 NIV

The wilderness was NOT a place to feel good:

"The wilderness stretches between Jerusalem on the central plateau and the

Dead Sea. In the Old Testament we find this area referred to as the

"Devastation". It is an area of 35 by 15 miles--approximately 525 square

miles. Sand, crumbling limestone and scattered shingle rock combine to

form an utterly desolate landscape. The hills of sand are like dust heaps; the

limestone is blistered and peeling, rocks are bare and jagged. Under the heat

of the sun it becomes like a furnace. It was here that God sent Jesus to sort

things out. And after 40 days of walking, and fasting, without food, at the

very limit of starvation, and facing temptation at every turn--you can bet

that Jesus didn't feel very good.

The wilderness is a Biblical metaphor for those places that don't feel good.

Jesus was in the wilderness, in a place that didn't feel good, in faithful

obedience to God...

+ Jesus' time in the wilderness was part of God's plan

"And the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness.." Mark

1:12 NRSV

In fact, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit literally threw Jesus in to the

wilderness! That word means to thrust, to drive to compel. Jesus didn't

stroll leisurely and meditatively into the wilderness! Under the strong,

motivating, pressing control of the Spirit, we see Jesus leaving the beautiful

solemnity of his baptism beside the Jordan River with swift, measured,

determined steps. He was driven irresistibly by the knowledge that there

was something which must be done, a battle that must be fought.

And it was the very Spirit of God that thrust Jesus into the wilderness, into a

place that didn't feel good, to do battle with the Enemy and to overcome

him. In Luke's account of the wilderness temptation of Jesus, this is what

we read: "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left [Jesus] until

an opportune time. Luke 4:13

Jesus fulfills God's plan by embracing the wilderness, by embracing this

place that didn't feel good! He didn't flee from it. He didn't say that good

Christians never have dry times or feel alone and separated from God. He

didn't say that faithful people should always live in peace and comfort, joy

and celebration! He didn't say that you will never feel lost when you try to

connect with God! And he didn't blame God or the praise team or the

hymns or the preacher for this time of spiritual discomfort and dryness.

In fact, as the first fully obedient human being, Jesus embraced the

loneliness of the wilderness, the sense of separation from God, the struggle

with temptation, and the stripping away of everything that was familiar,

comfortable and joyful. And for doing that, this is what he receives on the

other side of the wilderness--let's read it together: Jesus returned to

Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the

whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised

him." Luke 4:13; 14-15 NIV

Jesus is filled with the Spirit and begins a power ministry of teaching,

healing and casting out demons that rolled back the kingdom of darkness

and rolled in the Kingdom of God--precisely because he was obedient and

faithful to God. He embraced this time and this place in his relationship

with God that didn't feel good. He received it as a gift from God--to

prepare him for the very next stage in his life's mission.

NB: There are times when we end up in a wilderness, and in a place that

doesn't feel good, because of our own sin and disobedience. Unlike Jesus,

and in contrast to him, almost the entire generation of Israelites that

followed Moses out of Egypt perished in the wilderness. When it didn't feel

good, they grumbled, and complained, and blamed everyone and everything.

Instead of giving thanks for the miraculous manna that God gave them to

eat, and embracing the wilderness as a time to develop a deeper relationship

with God and reliance upon him, they hardened their hearts. They rejected

God in the wilderness--and because of that, the Bible says, they died there.

(I Cor 10:5; Hebrews 3:8, 17)

And dear ones here's the point: :If you have removed the possibility of sin

and disobedience through repentance and confession, and you still find

yourself in the wilderness, where faith doesn't feel good-- please realize

God has led you to this place, just like Jesus, as part of his plan for you!

To sort things out, to clarify his calling for your life, to prepare you for the

next step he wants you to take in following his purposes and plans and the

high hopes he has for you!

+ God often leads faithful people to places that don't feel good...

The Bible is full of examples where God led obedient, seeking people to a

place that didn't feel good...to sort things out

The Wilderness of Moses: Where on a day like any other day Moses

encountered God and discovered his life's work and calling out of a

burning bush;

The Wilderness of Israel on the way in the Sinai--Where God was

preparing a people, his church, to enter the promised land--by

delivering His word to them in a place without distraction, and calling

them to develop a particular closeness and intimacy with Him in a

place where the resources were scarce!(SRC and "Veja Du")

The Wilderness of Elijah--Where God healed and restored a burned

out prophet named Elijah; gave him divine provision and resources for

the journey ahead; a time to recover God's perspective again, and to

hear God's still small voice again.

The Wilderness of Jesus: of Power and Provision: Where Jesus faced

the devil and overcame his temptations, and where Jesus took almost

non-existent resources and fed 5,000 people-- where God takes us to

teach us to rely on his power and his provisions for our needs

The Wilderness of Paul: Paul wrote in Galatians 1:17 that after his

conversion to Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he went into a

wilderness--into Arabia. Most scholars believe this was an extended

time where God isolated Paul in order to recast and relearn every

scripture he had studied in the light of his encounter with Jesus Christ.

Thesis: All great leaders must go through isolating, wilderness

experiences . "God's shaping activities in isolation times cause a

leader to seriously evaluate his/her life and ministry and relationship

to God. And one who responds to God during these isolation times

ends up a different person--living life more deeply, and ministering

out of being rather than doing..." Isolation Processing, p. vii

+When you are seeking God in faith, following Jesus, and he leads you to

a place that doesn't feel good...what should you do?

+1. Face the demons--and overcome them with Jesus

NB: Jesus didn't have any inner demons to face...But we do!

Illustr: How many have scene Empire Strikes back? The scene: "Luke

vs Darth in the cave-- who did he defeat? Who was beneath the mask--

himself!

Quote from LeAnne Payne: "All kinds of diseased thoughts and feelings

will surface--we may even feel the pain will kill us...But it is going through

the furnace of facing those inner addictions, compulsions and diseased

thoughts and feelings that God deals with them and they are burned away"

+2. Let the Lord feed you

Sometimes God will lead us into the wilderness-- a place that doesn't

feel good because the resources are scarce and the things we used to do to

get by don't work anymore...e.g. My time of unemployment: when no

positions opened, and when it wasn't good enough to be an exceptionally

hard worker... Like the time for Elijah when the brook dried up and he had

to rely on the birds that God sent to feed him! God was teaching us to put

our whole trust in him, and NOT in working hard or having the right

connections--trusting that he would provide for our needs day by day, week

by week, month by month...

Jesus put it this way, "Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness

and died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may

eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.

Whoever eats of this bread will live forever..." John 6:49-51 NRSV

When faith leads you to a place that is dry and unsatisfying and doesn't

feel good, it may be Jesus teaching you how to let him feed you in a new and

deeper way--to trust him instead of yourself or the habits you've developed

in relating to God...

e.g. Betsey's handout: "When Bible reading goes dry"

+3. Connect with Christ in solitude and prayer

"Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came

to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to

lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:15-16 NIV

Jesus faced exactly the same temptations we do here in NoVa: he faced

busyness, and the increased demands that come with success, and the

temptation to drivenness and more success and more time demands to fill

legitimate and pressing needs... And Jesus could have done what many of us

end up doing--getting lost in work and success, wandering away from God

and family, and becoming prayerless and disconnected from God.

But that didn't happen to Jesus! Why?? Because he sought solitude and

prayed often...

One thing the Lord has impressed on me lately: Prayerlessness. E.g.

Noah's comment about the drivenness and fruitlessness of ministry in the

USA--prayerlessness...

And you know, if we don't choose to take time often, like Jesus, to go to a

lonely place to pray and re-connect with God, should we be surprised if in

his love for us he puts us in a "time-out", a wilderness, a place that doesn't

feel good so that we will be forced to settle down, get quiet and learn how to

listen?

Let me close with a few lines from a song by Steven Curtis Chapman,

Sometimes he comes in the Clouds, when faith doesn't feel good:

These are the places I was so sure I'd find Him

I've looked in the pages And I've looked down on my knees

I've lifted my eyes in expectation

To see the sun still refusing to shine, but...

[Chorus:]

Sometimes He comes in the clouds

Sometimes His face cannot be found

Sometimes the sky is dark and grey

But some things can only be known

And sometimes our faith can only grow

When we can't see

So sometimes He comes in the clouds

Sometimes He comes in the rain

And we question the pain

And wonder why God can seem so far away

But time will show us He was right there with us

PRAYER-- RESPONSE...

The Rev. J. Philip Ashey

13314 Pennypacker Lane Fairfax, VA 22033