Fall Study Lesson 4: The Secret Problems Sabotaging Us
The most dangerous problems are ones you don’t know.
Imagine you’re preparing for a long car trip, the trunk stuffed full with your suitcases, your passenger seat full of travel-snacks, and your mind assured that your car is in perfect condition. But it’s not. There’s something wrong with the engine. And you don’t know. As you drive, you may get frustrated with the weird noises and odd smell; but you’re sure nothing is wrong with your car. So you’re frustrated at the hurt to your ears and nose you’re experiencing--but you’re also in great danger of your whole car catching on fire. Something in the car’s design has gone wrong. Being ignorant of the problem puts you in danger.
God designed us to know and experience love. We saw last week how we are made to walk in communion with Him, in His peace, but we can be filled with anxiety. We were intended to experience His love--but so often, we don’t. What happened?
Our world has broken down.
Fueling With Harmful Things
We talked about how sin entered in and twisted everything. It should be no surprise that we experience things that hurt our souls. As C. S. Lewis put it: “God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.” (Mere Christianity) Our hearts are made to run on God--and they runs poorly when it runs on anything else. But that’s what we’ve filled them with.
We fill our hearts with self-love and self-glory, and it has made every other part of us run wrong. We talked last week about common struggles, and how they become twisted by sin. But common struggles aren’t the only thing that have been twisted.
We have relational struggles as well--conflict, loneliness, anxiety, family dysfunction, physical abuse, manipulation , or even the death of a loved one. This leads to us responding with distrust, defensiveness, suspicion, isolation, or avoidance. But that’s not all that has been affected--we now have faith struggles as well. We question God’s control, His care, and His love. We lack desire for Him and His word. These three issues, common struggles, relational struggles, and faith struggles, are made worse as they are fueled by the self-love and glory in our hearts.
But there’s also sabotage attempts on our vehicles, trying to harm us from outside. The flesh includes the issues above, but the world and the devil also fight against us experiencing God.
The world lives as if there is no God, feeding our insatiable desire to be the center of the universe. The Enemy seeks to deceive us with his lies, distract us with worldly comforts or worry, discourage us by focusing on the bad, and divide us from other believers and from God.
This Enemy seeks to kill, steal, and destroy, and though he can work through any of our struggles, he loves to do it with our faith struggles. Just like in Eden of old, Satan tries to convince us that God isn’t near, and that God’s love isn’t enough. Fueled by our own heart and Satan’s lies, we can become hardened and angry at God, wrestling with:
Doubt: We can doubt God’s presence, promises, and power. God where are you? God do you care for me? Do you love me? I believe God’s promises for others, but not for me. God you can’t change me/my spouse. God, I doubt you can protect me or provide for me
Despair: Life changes for the worse, and we can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps you notice that you place your hope in your circumstances or relationships changing. But when they don’t change, you can battle hopelessness. Why hasn’t God changed me or my circumstances? Things will never change. Why Won’t God give me what I ask for?
Distance: We can feel like God is far from us. We want to turn our back on God and give up on Him. This is a particular temptation when it seems He has not heard or answered your prayers. How can I love a God who allowed ___? How can God love me after what I did? How can God love me after what was done to me? God doesn’t hear/answer my prayers. God seems so far away.
Our Surprise Rescue
These can feel like overwhelming hurts, overwhelming questions, overwhelming odds against us. But we’re not on our own. We’re not left stranded with a smoking engine on a dark night.
God burst through. He crossed the distance Himself, dying for the sin that stained our hearts, and gave us His power through His Spirit inside us.
Suddenly, the weapons of the world, the flesh, and the Enemy don't have the same power anymore. They no longer have the same hold over us. This doesn’t mean we won’t be tempted. Scripture promises us that we will have struggles (John 16:33), and Jesus Himself was tempted.
But now, temptation is no longer the great power of the Enemy. We can turn his very weapons against him--and use our temptations to drive us to Jesus. Yes, we will still fight against the self-love and self-glory in our hearts, and still wrestle with broken relationships. But now, those are no longer hopeless battles--they are opportunities to turn to God for strength. Just like Paul, who had a “thorn in the flesh,” we can see temptations as reminders of how much we need God. They keep our self-glory in check--but they also serve as a testimony to God’s love, evidence that He sustains you and will help you to escape.
We are not made to experience evil. We weren’t designed to have these harms to our souls, coming either from others or from our own sinful decisions. But God’s love is powerful enough to overcome it. In the beginning, He made us to experience His love; at the cross, He died so we could return to His love; in the present, He lives in us to help us experience His love; and one day, He will return and defeat all sin and evil so we can dwell in His love.
“In the beginning, God made us to experience His love; at the cross, He died so we could return to His love; in the present, He lives in us to help us experience His love; and one day, He will return and defeat all sin and evil so we can dwell in His love. ”
Don’t ignore the problems facing you, and pretend like those noises and burning smells are nothing to worry about. Yet don’t fall into despair either. Instead, let’s use these problems as opportunities to come to Jesus, to run to Him, and to experience His restoring love again.
Lord, thank you that you are a God who overcomes. You did not leave us stranded and stuck--you came to us, lived among us, and gave your life for us. Jesus, forgive us when we are blind to our problems, and when we ignore our sins--make our hearts soft, so we may ever run to you. You are faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we struggle this week, let that drive us to you, knowing your love sustains us, and that you promise to never leave us. Amen.
