"Is Your Christian Life Hard?" by Glenn Martin

The one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Thank you for joining us here at Strength to Strength. Thank you for meeting us here this morning or tuning into a podcast or YouTube, where you can find our content. Our goal here at Strength to Strength is that you would be built up in your faith and your understanding of truth. And since our walk with Christ isn't simply a personal journey, our goal is that you would find yourself in a community of believers that are living in a humble, obedient, love-faith relationship with Jesus Christ. So that's our heart's desire for each one of you that is listening, that you would not only be built up in your personal faith, but that if there's a way that we can connect you with other believers where you are, reach out, we will try to do so.

Also, you can look on our website at the churchindex.org and see if there's any churches close to you. I'm sure there's someone who would love to reach out and connect with you wherever you are. This morning is our last talk before our new summer schedule. We're going down to one talk. We'll be producing one talk per month until September.

There is a Strength to Strength Sisters this afternoon, and those are once a month as well. So it's not like you're not going to hear anything from Strength to Strength throughout the summer other than the one talk per month. And there's also we'll be putting out an author interview or two over the summer. So this morning we have Brother Glenn Martin joining us. He's from Western Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and two children, and they are part of Disciples Fellowship there in Granby, Massachusetts.

Glenn plays a critical role here at Strength to Strength. And one way I guess I think about it is, is I may work here, even though it's not a job, but I think Glenn is one who keeps the lights on. So thank you, Glenn, for all your hard work behind the scenes and for making sure the content gets out there.

We really appreciate it. And also the work that you do with Strength to Strength books. I'm looking forward to your teaching this morning, which is titled, "Is Your Christian Life Hard?" I've always enjoyed your perspective on biblical accounts, especially in your book, Righteous Lot, which you can find on Strength to Strength books. Really enjoyed that. And I've been to your church and I've heard you teach there, and I think it was more directed to children, but I really enjoyed that time of teaching. I enjoy your perspective of Scripture and that it is rooted in the historical view of the Bible. And I'm looking forward to hearing more of that this morning. So God bless you as you share with us.

Before we get started, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Righteous Father, we come to you this morning. We are so grateful that we can cry out, "Abba Father," because you have created us in your image. You have called us to be your sons and daughters, and you have provided a way for us to come boldly to the throne of grace through the blood of Christ. Thank you that we have new life in him through the resurrection. We thank you for Brother Glenn. Thank you for all the work that he does in the kingdom. I pray that you would bless him this morning, give him wisdom and courage to speak plainly the things of truth that we can feast on the bread of life once again.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, go ahead, Brother Glenn. All right, thank you, Sam. Yes, my name is Glenn Martin, and I'm happy to be on here with Strength to Strength this morning and happy to share. So the talk this morning is called, "Is Your Christian Life Hard?" And I'm going to share my screen for a few notes.

And are you able to see my screen there?

Yes, we are. Okay. All right. So I think without further introduction, I'll just jump into the talk here. The question is pretty simple. Is your Christian life hard? And there's a few ways in which people have answered this over the years and even in song. So we have the song, "It's Not an Easy Road." It's not an easy road. We are traveling to heaven. For many are the thorns on the way. It's not an easy road, but the Savior is with us. His presence gives us joy every day.

No, no, it's not an easy road. So this song says, yes, the Christian life is hard. Jesus is with us. He gives us joy, but the road is tough. And then there's other songs like this one, "His Yoke is Easy." I've found my Lord and he is mine. He won me by his love. I'll serve him all my years of time and dwell with him above. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. I've found it so. I've found it so. His service is my sweetest delight. His blessings ever flow.

A little bit of a contradiction between those two, if I may say. So then there's another class of songs like this one that say that it's hard now, but it will be easy later. "Off times the day seems long. Our trial's hard to bear. We're tempted to complain, to murmur and despair. But Christ will soon appear to catch his bride away. All tears forever over in God's eternal day."

The chorus says, "It will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrow will erase. So bravely run the race till we see Christ."

So compared to the first two songs, I think this one gives a better perspective. I don't think it's like I don't think it's proper to describe the Christian life as drudgery, as difficult, as hard. Nor do I think it's correct to say, "Yes, it's all easy. This is a piece of cake." But this one, I think, is closer to the right perspective. It's hard now, be easy later. But I'm not sure that it really is the true big picture of our lives, that we need to endure through a lifetime of burdens, maybe drudgery, until we're finally rewarded in a future heaven.

So to be clear, I'm not down on this message of the song, but I'm not sure that this is the full picture. So there's a book by David Brousseau called Secrets of the Kingdom Life. And in this book, he describes three levels of obedience. So he talks about fear obedience.

Somebody who lives in fear obedience, they do what needs to be done to avoid hell. Whenever there's a command of Scripture, something that God expects of us, they'll say, "Is that a salvation issue? Do I need to do this to get to heaven?"

And I think it's hopefully clear to us that this is not a great way to live. They're looking for loopholes. If they can find them, they'll take them. They do the bare necessity. Then Brousseau talks about a second one called dutiful obedience. And here, the person obeys dutifully. They do what God says like a servant, but they see that God's commands, they believe that God's commands are arbitrary. Maybe they're unnecessary or they're restrictive and a killjoy.

You might hear somebody say, "If I was not a Christian, I would," and then something they would indulge in or enjoy or whatever, but they don't because God is keeping them from that. And then the third one is love obedience. And this is someone who loves what God loves. They respond in joyful obedience. They might understand, they might not, but nonetheless, if it's from God, they love it. And David said, "How I love your law, O Lord, it is my meditation the whole day long." And I think we can clearly see this is a much better place to be, just loving the things that God loves. And that's, I think, what should be our aim.

Not everybody is at the same place in this. Even in your own life, you might find certain aspects of your life where you're living in fear, others duty, others love. But I think it should be our goal to come to love obedience.

But it seems like there's few people who really are fully engaged in this. And I think the question that I ask is, why not? Even for myself, why am I not always living in that reality? Well, I think there's a few lies of the devil that are depriving us, that are keeping us from being there. And one is that Satan wants us to believe that God is depriving us of something. And we have that right in Genesis, as God said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden."

So there we have the suggestion that God is not giving everything that we could have otherwise. Satan tells us that God doesn't have our best interest in mind. What I have on the screen here is borrowed from another talk that was done earlier here on Strength to Strength. But how do you perceive God? Do you view him as vindictive or as merciful, as a taskmaster or as a good father? Do you view him as stingy or generous, obnoxious or friendly? Do you view him as a killjoy or is he pleasurable? Is he indifferent or is he attentive? Is he distant or is he near, dangerous or safe, austere or kind? Is he your adversary or your ally?

The way you answer this says a lot about not only how you perceive God, but how your response is going to be to God. Are you going to be joyful in obedience to God, or is it going to be a drudgery?

So I think another lie is that Satan doesn't advertise the effects of sin. Proverbs tells us that it is a great snare to a man when he sins, but a righteous man shall be in joy and gladness. Like Satan doesn't tell us that. Satan doesn't tell us that if we sin, it's going to be a trap for us. And he doesn't tell us that if we obey God, that it's going to be to our joy. Instead, he offers the cheese and doesn't tell us that this contraption is a trap to destroy us.

So a few miles from where I live, there's a casino. And on the wall of the casino of the parking garage, there's a huge banner that says, "This is where winners play." And as I drive by there sometimes, I think I could fix their sign and give it the truth. You know, like the devil only tells us that this is where winners play, but doesn't tell us that this is where losers lose, really.

So how do we find this freedom?

Psalm 119, this is what David said again, "How I love your law, it is my meditation the whole day long." This is where we want to go. But what if my Christian life is hard and maybe I don't love God like David describes?

Well, I think we sometimes wrongly imagine that freedom is the absence of restraint. But I'd like to say this morning that I think that freedom is the ability to function how God intended us. Okay? So if you think about a kite, a kite has a lot of freedom, can fly high in the sky and do what it's intended to do. But for that to work, it needs both wind and restraint to be able to find freedom. If you have a kite and the wind stops, it's going to crash.

Or if the restraint, if the string on it is lost, it's going to crash. So the way that God designed us is the way that we're going to function best. So freedom is found in living according to our design.

So if you use a tool for the wrong purpose, we're going to become frustrated. So God gives us instructions, and there to God's instructions give freedom to live as we were designed to live. So that means that when we find expectations in the Scripture from God that are for us, we can know that they're for our good. Okay? They're not arbitrary. They're not trying to test us and see if we're really sincere. But the purpose of God's instruction for us is to function best. He's showing us how best to live.

So there's a book by Randy Alcorn. It's called The Purity Principle. And in this book, which is on a different topic a little bit, it's actually on the topic of sexual purity. But in this book, he has this quote. He says, "Satan's greatest victories and our biggest defeats come when he gets us to ask, should I choose what God commands or should I do what's best for me?"

You ever heard that question? Should I do what God commands or should I do what's best for me? Well, I would like to say that that is a temptation of the devil. There is no difference between God's commands and what's best for you. What's best for you is God's commands. So we should never accept the lie of the devil that these are two different things. Okay? God's commands are what is best for us.

So maybe you've wondered already, you know, perhaps if God had allowed some particular deed and wouldn't call this out in Scripture as sin, then it would be okay. Like, would that be okay? If God had not called stealing wrong, then we could steal. And it would be, you know, something that we'd enjoy or whatever. And you could put any sin in there.

So I think that the answer to this is pretty simple. The answer is no. That idea supposes that God's laws are without a purpose. Like if God had not told us that lust and stealing and lying is bad, it would still be just as bad for us.

On the screen here, I have a poster for a car battery and how you're supposed to protect this battery. So are these rules here about the battery just because they're trying to make life difficult? Well, no. I mean, the reason they have these things is because they're trying to make your life easy. They want you to use this battery or your car, use the battery in such a way that it's going to prolong its life and help the battery to live well, if you will.

So I think it was David. He said, "He who would love life, well, I want to love life and see good days." Well, that would be me. We want to love life. We want to see good days. Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

Okay, so there we can see that the instruction is telling us how to live a better life. If you want to love life and see good days, then here's a clue on something you can do for that outcome.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Isn't that interesting? It doesn't say, "Just do this because we're trying to discipline you and make life difficult." It says, "No, the reason for a child to obey their parents is because it comes with the promise it's going to be well with you. You're going to live long on the earth." So anyone would see that to be in their own self-interest. People want to have things well with them and live long on the earth.

So just a little thought experiment. Suppose that someone had no knowledge of God, but they had perfect knowledge of the best way to live. Now, just to be clear, this is hypothetical. Nobody is like this, but suppose this would be the case. Someone doesn't know about God, but they have been given perfect knowledge of the best way to live. What would that look like?

Well, I think they would be a peacemaker. I think they would love their neighbor. I think they would speak the truth and avoid lies. I think they would have fidelity in marriage. I think they would be humble. I think they'd be merciful and gracious. I think they would be forgiving. You see, all those things are the same way that we should live because of our knowledge of God.

So it's really one and the same. So God didn't arbitrarily tell us how to live. Instead, the best way to live is the way that God tells us to live. He made it easy for us by informing us of how we're going to function best.

Back to the same book by Randy Alcorn, he says, "Purity is always smart. Impurity is always stupid. A holy God made the universe in such a way that actions true to his character and the laws derived from his character are always rewarded." Isn't that interesting?

So if you're tempted with the question, "Should I choose what God commands or should I do what's best for me?" I think our best response to that is, "What God commands is what's best for me." God has our own best interest in mind in the things that he tells us.

It's in your own self-interest to obey God.

You know, there's a song that talks about, you know, if we had any idea of the life that it is to live outside of God, like we wouldn't go there. Now, since you've known the blessed Savior and since you've found his cleansing power, how can you go back out there and deny him? There's nothing out there for a soul that's once known God.

So it's in your own self-interest. Of course, there it says, "There's nothing out there for a soul that's known God. No peace nor pleasure can be found. There's nothing but sorrow and disappointment. There's nothing out there for a soul that's once known God."

So I'd like to talk about the yoke of Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew, he says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

So just thinking about that, I looked in some lexicons. What does it mean, "My yoke is easy"? Well, it means that it's suitable or it's useful, it's serviceable and productive, well-fitted, well-resourced, beneficial, benevolent. Okay? That's what the word really means. And what it does not mean is that it's unchallenging or simple or a piece of cake or no sweat or effortless. No. When Jesus said that my yoke is easy, he meant that it fits well. It's beneficial to you. It's serviceable. It's suitable.

There's other translations that say that it's pleasant, easy to bear, sweet and comfortable, but not just easy.

So if you have a yoke and if it's an ill-fitted yoke, it doesn't fit right around the neck, there's going to be a lot of grief with that. It's going to rub, it's going to chafe and wear through your skin. It's going to cause sores and bruises and pain and grief. And you'll, you know, become angry with your boss and hate your job. But the yoke that comes from Jesus just fits. It's made for us. He's the creator. He made us and he made the yoke to fit us. And so it's going to make the burdens light. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome, said John, 1 John 5:3.

Isn't that interesting? The love of God is that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

So it seems like some Christians are seemingly reserving their joy for a future age. They're looking for a pie in the sky, by and by, when I die. You know, now life is hard, but there's going to be a better time when it'll be easy and fun. But Jesus said, "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be full." He's talking about now. He's not talking about the future. He's not talking about after death or when we get to heaven or anything like that. He says, "I'm telling you these things so that your joy can be full to the top."

So there's a song that's a familiar one, the song "We're Marching to Zion." Originally, it had a different title. It was called "Glory Begun Below."

And originally, this song, instead of having four verses, like most hymnos do today, it used to have 10 verses. The song is written by Isaac Watts. And Isaac Watts was communicating through this song that the glory and joy should be something that we experience here and now. So I'm going to read all 10 verses of this song. And if anything, I think this song best communicates the answer to this question.

It says, "Come we that love the Lord and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord and thus surround the throne." And as we go through this, think about this. All these verses are talking about how we should be experiencing this now. The sorrows of the mind be banished from the place. Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less.

Let those refuse to sing who never knew our God, that favorites of the heavenly king may speak their joys abroad. The God that rules on high and thunders when he pleases, that rides upon the stormy sky and manages the seas. This awful God is ours, our Father and our love.

He shall send down his heavenly powers to carry us above. There we shall see his face and never, never sin. There from the rivers of his grace drink endless pleasures in. Yes, and before we rise to that immortal state, the thoughts of such amazing bliss should constant joy create. Okay? You see what that's saying? Before we get to heaven, before these thoughts should constant joy create, the men of grace have found glory begun below. Celestial fruits on earthly ground from faith and hope may grow.

The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. Then let our songs abound and every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's ground to fairer worlds on high. I love that song. Beautiful words. And I like that one verse where it says that celestial fruits on earthly ground from faith and hope may grow. So while we are here, we can find this glory as we even look forward to more in the future.

You made known to me the ways of life. You fill me with gladness in your presence. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore, taken from Psalm 16. On the screen, I have a picture of the narrow way and the broad way. There's many artists that have rendered this in some scene of the present to the future. And lest we think that the broad way looks fun because of all the things along the way, it's also along that side where there's wars and fightings and so much more that is just the foretaste of the destruction at the end. And then on the narrow way, we have this path that might look a little more difficult, but it's a path of life.

And there's living water there. Jesus is there. And I actually, there's a lot of artists who have rendered this. I actually collect these pictures and there's a lot of them. So somebody might raise the objection. Well, you know, life is easy for me. I'm a middle-class, 21st-century American, but that's not the case for many people. What about the persecuted? What about people who live difficult lives? So there's a book from 1542, I think is when it was printed, called The Chronicle. It wasn't printed. It was written, The Chronicle of the Heterian Brethren. And it recounts stories of persecution against the early Hutterites during the radical Reformation. So I looked to this for some insight on this question.

And I'm going to read some excerpts from there. One of them early in the book says, "Their endurance in suffering proved to be greater than that of their enemies in tormenting them." Isn't that interesting? So I'm going to read, first of all, some quotes about the persecutors. Okay? This is the bad guys who are doing the harm.

And here's what it says. Many of those cruel sons of Pilate who murdered the believers and made them suffer met with a horrible death snatched away before their time by the master they served. That doesn't sound like something, you know, you'd want to be on that side. Some died a sudden death.

Some were struck by God with other calamities. Others were seized with great fear, remorse, and despair. Some never had another good or happy day as long as they lived. One went out of his mind. Another would have given any amount of money never to have done what he did.

Many wished the devout had never come into their hands. Many resolved to have nothing more to do with persecution for fear had come over them and their consciences were struck. So I would like to put this against quotes then of those who are being persecuted.

Some of those who suffered such cruel imprisonment sang songs of praise to their God because they were full of joy.

Some did the same when taken from prison to the place of execution. They sang joyfully, their voices ringing out as if they were going to meet the bridegroom at a wedding.

Before going to the place of death, many young girls put on their finest dresses and adorned themselves as for a day of rejoicing, like those who feel heavenly joy and are about to enter the gates of eternal bliss.

Others went with a smile on their lips, praising God that he found them worthy of the death of true Christian heroes, and they would not have exchanged it for a peaceful death in their beds.

The prisoners who sang joyfully until their enemies outside, who had thought the prisoners would be terrified, were themselves more terrified than the prisoners and did not know what to do with them.

So which side would you want to be on? There's a quote, I love this quote. It says, "Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God."

So I'd like to read some from Psalm 72.

How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart. But as for me, my feet were almost shaken. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was jealous of the lawless when I beheld the peace of sinners. For there is no upward gaze of their death, nor steadfastness in their chastening. They are not in difficulties with other men, and they shall not be chastened with other men. For this reason, arrogance mastered them. They clothed themselves with their wrongdoing and ungodliness. They thought and spoke in evil and set their mouth against heaven and their tongue passed through the earth. For this reason, my people shall return here. Days of fullness shall be found in them. They said, "How does God know?

Is there any knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are sinners, and they prosper. They possess wealth in this age." And I said, "Surely in vain have I kept my heart righteous and washed my hands with the innocent." For all day long I was scourged, and my reproof persisted through the night. And I sought to understand this. It was difficult in my sight until I came into God's holy place and understood their end.

Surely for their deceits, you appointed deceits for them. You cast them down in their exultation. For what is there in heaven for me but you? And what do I desire on earth besides you? For behold, those who keep themselves far away from you shall perish. You destroy away from you all who act unfaithfully. But as for me, it is good to cling to God, put my hope in the Lord that I may proclaim all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion.

So is your Christian life hard?

Well, if you understand your purpose, and your purpose is to live as God designed you, you will find the yoke of God to be neither effortless nor burdensome, but an experience of joyful freedom. Amen.

Thank you, Brother Glenn. I really enjoyed that. What a beautiful challenge. Yeah, we're going to open it up for discussion. If you have any comments or questions for Brother Glenn, now is the time to share them. So, yeah, I have a few things that I thought about. I mean, a lot of things, actually. But thank you for this practical message. It is a day-to-day perspective that we can carry. So if our view of God, this harks back to right at the beginning, you were talking about the different types of obedience. So our view of God, you know, is he vindictive? Is he angry? Does he carry a big stick? If that motivates our obedience, how do we adjust that?

How do we change that? Because sometimes those things are shaped even in the circumstances we're raised in. Maybe the kind of father that we had sort of shapes our view of God. These are our reference points. So how does that, how can that be shaped?

Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, it's interesting how in this time that we live in, the New Testament, we think that we have it, you know, better than they did in that bad Old Testament where things were really, really bad and tough and so on. But it wasn't actually the case that the people at that time felt that way. Like David, he loved the law of the Lord. It's very interesting that after David had sinned by numbering the people, then God said, "Look, I have three options for what you want your punishment to be. You can have option A, option B, or option C."

And I think it's just interesting what David said. He's like, "Let me fall into the hands of God because he's a merciful God, but don't let me fall into the hands of man." Amen. And we have this idea that, you know, God is ruthless and men, you know, are going to have some mercy.

There's another verse in Micah. It says, "Who is a pardoning God like you?" And who, you know, like, I don't have the quote in front of me, but even at that time, even in the Old Testament, they saw that God is loving and kind and, yeah, just out for their good. That is, those who were on God's side. Now, those who aren't on God's side, in fact, did receive, you know, punishment from God and all the judgment that comes with being, you know, on the wrong side. So I think that, you know, number one is we need to be on God's side. If we're on God's side, that's a very important first step. And then I think it's just getting a proper perspective of why God calls us to the things that he calls us to.

And that might take, you know, a lot of study. Sometimes we don't know, but I think we can be confident that God's way is best. Amen. Absolutely. If you don't have to read much of the Old Testament to realize that it actually overflows with God's abundant mercy and grace. And they poured it out. I mean, I had copied and pasted in my notes here for this morning, a portion out of Lamentations. Through the Lord's mercy, we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. I mean, sometimes I read Old Testament authors and I and I think of, you know, how are these people not born again with this perspective of God?

Because he says, "They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness." I mean, this is something that we exalt in every day because of the mercy of God and the grace of God through the blood of Christ, which we have in the new covenant. But these are people under the old covenant. And I've often thought there should be a message or something put together to show the continuity of the greatness and the mercy and the beauty of God that flows through the Bible from the beginning to the end. Instead of thinking that, you know, the Old Testament paints a different picture of God than the New Testament. Like he goes on, it's Jeremiah, obviously, in Lamentations.

He says, "The Lord is my portion. Therefore I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth." I mean, this is Jeremiah, the weeping prophet who, I mean, his yoke was hard.

It was very difficult. And yet he overflowed with praise and joy in the Lord. Beautiful. I love that. So our perspective of God will shape our obedience.

Yeah, I also just thought about Jonah. And interestingly, Jonah, you know, he was sent there to Nineveh. And when he found out that God's not going to be destroying them because they repented, he's like, "I knew it." It's like, he says, "I fled to Tarshish because I knew your gracious and merciful God slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm."

It's like he was frustrated. He was frustrated because he wanted to see the the vengeance of God. And instead, he saw mercy coming from God. Yeah.

That's awesome. Does anyone else have something to share or ask?

Really appreciated the statement. I wrote it down here. Freedom is the ability to function in the way that God designed us. That is, that statement is definitely a counter or a truth that is counter to the lie that is most prevalent in the world today, that God is restrictive and makes us miserable. And, you know, freedom is doing what you want. Freedom is being untethered, giving in to all the lust and, you know, whatever else.

And it's such a vile lie, really, that we can still succumb to, even as believers, that somehow, you know, if there's other freedom. But freedom is the ability to function in the way that God designed us. I mean, you could have a whole message just on that concept alone. Yeah, amen.

Hey, yes. Thank you, Glenn. I really, really appreciated your talk here this morning and very inspiring. It made me think of a quote that I have from E. Stanley Jones. He talks about the moral laws of the universe and doesn't specifically say God's laws, but I think he's referring to that. He says, "The moral laws of the universe are deeply embedded in the constitution of things. We do not break them. We break ourselves upon them."

When you're talking about how God's laws aren't arbitrary, they're there for our good. And like, that's how we function best because that's how he made us. And so that was, yeah. And also, I really liked, thanks for sharing the verses from the verse of the song from Marching to Zion. I didn't run across that before. That's really intriguing.

I think that verse, like you said, about how the fruit of the fruit of our joy, or whatever it puts it, is it grows out of the soil of this earth here. Thanks, Glenn. Thank you.

Yeah, I have a question related to, and you partially, let's see here, there. Lighting isn't the greatest here.

So Paul talks about the suffering that a believer will expect, and Jesus did as well. And thinking about how we teach our children about the life of following Christ and whether we learn that suffering is to be expected. So I think I lived a lot of my life with kind of this false hope that if I was faithful and maybe because of the setting that we're in, you know, in the Western world, that I would have a life that was relatively not free from suffering, but it wouldn't be excruciating, and that would be good.

And I'm coming to realize that suffering is not only to be expected, but it's essential to a life of discipleship and Christ following and also to true joy.

So how do we learn? How do we communicate to our children? And how do we understand that the faithful Christian life is full? It's full of suffering and joy. And those are not exclusive.

And how do we teach our children to not try to seek a path that avoids suffering?

Yeah, well, thank you for the question. So the one thing that I think about, maybe two things that I'll mention here. One is the example of the kite. So for the kite to fly high, it can't be untethered. You know, if it's untethered, it's going to crash. So there's, you know, represented in the string is just that there's some, you know, restraint because if we're left to our own devices, we're going to self-destruct. And then also the kite won't fly without wind. And the wind, you know, might be representative of the winds of life and the, you know, the stresses and strains, but that's what carries the kite upward and forward. So that would be one thing I think about.

Another thing is there's a quote, I think this is by John Rohn, and he says that everyone must choose their pain. Everyone must choose one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. And I think that is really insightful that we're going to have pain, but like, do we want the pain of regret later by untethering ourselves from God, essentially? Or do we rather want the pain of discipline? And I think that discipline, I think the Christian life, it all comes with some level of difficulty, just like Jesus said, it's a yoke. But the thing about Jesus' yoke, unlike the yoke of the devil, is that with Jesus' yoke, it's well-fitted.

It's made for us. We are going to function best in Jesus' yoke. And yeah, I think that might be one way to look at that.

Yeah, thank you.

There's a verse that came to my mind from Romans 5, and I have pondered on this verse many, many times.

And it's not only that, so it's Paul speaking, obviously, the author of Romans, but he says not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. That's a concept that's foreign to me as a Christian, you know, in Western culture where we've kind of been taught that, you know, we can live our prosperous Christian lives without any affliction. And so to rejoice in suffering.

But he says we do that because we know that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. I mean, I've looked at those over and over and over. And that's a perspective that, I mean, you brought up teaching your children. This is something that would have to be rooted in our own hearts so that this is the reflex that's there, that there's a rejoicing in suffering.

And if they don't see that reflex, they're probably not going to see that it builds endurance and character and hope. But it seems like such a foreign concept that we would rejoice in suffering. But I think you alluded to this, that it is, or someone did earlier, that it is these two things go hand in hand in service to Christ.

Just something that came to mind when you were sharing your question there.

Yeah, thanks, Glenn, for sharing that. I really enjoyed it. And along those lines of the discussion there you were just having, Arlen and Sam, I think our children are best prepared and trained. Well, you were basically saying this, Sam, when they see us find joy even in the midst of difficulty and suffering.

There's a verse that stood out to me recently in Malachi 3 that compares the Lord to a refiner's fire and being a refiner and purifier of silver. And then there's a story that I came across where they wanted to figure out what does a refiner of silver actually do? How do they do this process? So they went to see a silversmith, and he said he monitors this process very closely. He doesn't want to overdo the silver or he'll ruin it. And then they asked him, "Well, how do you know when the silver has been refined?" And they said, "Well, he said, well, that's easy. That's when I can see the reflection of myself in the silver."

And so that's a beautiful picture of God. He's there very intently watching us during our times of suffering and refining because he doesn't want to overdo it. He doesn't want to ruin us. And his whole purpose is to be able to clear away some of this stuff, selfishness, so that his image is reflected in our character. And it just ministered to me that, you know, these things that we face that hurt and are difficult are actually for our good. It's all back to that thought that God's ways are for our good, and he has our best interest in mind. He's not there to make life hard for us. So then we can find true joy in his presence and his allowing of what he does in our lives.

It's all there for a purpose.

Amen. Thank you, Justin.

I have a question. When you were talking about joy, I really love the beautiful contrast between the persecuted and the persecutors. You could see who was on God's side, you know, who was receiving the blessing, who was carrying the light yoke, even though they were going to their deaths. I really appreciated that. But speaking about being filled with joy all the time, maybe this is more of a confession. I don't know if anyone else relates to this or not, but when you're in a society or in a circle or work among people who, I don't know if you've noticed, it seems like complaining is a pretty big thing these days, especially in the people that I tend to be around, I guess, at work or, you know, it's just you bump into somebody and they're complaining about something.

You know, it could be politics, it could be weather, it could be anything. And so to come at that with joy and gratitude, there's something that's kept me from expressing that a little bit. And I wonder, is it rooted in a false humility that you wouldn't, you know, is there something around not expressing that exuberantly in a culture where complaining seems to be the way to go? Because it kind of paints you as a simpleton.

You know, they're complaining, you know, they're sophisticatedly complaining about something. And here you are just, well, I'm happy to be alive. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, or is that rooted in a false humility, or is it something that you can't relate to? Yeah, I think I can relate to that. I think I know what you're talking about there.

I don't know if I have an immediate good answer for that. One thing I was just thinking about as you were talking about that, let me just see if I can find this quote here. Give me a second.

Yeah, so somebody asked the question, "What is life going to be like in 2024?" You know, like in this, like we're in such a bad time and everything's falling apart and so on. Anyway, the person responding to that was in their garden planting flowers, and they said, "Well, for me, there's going to be flowers in 2024," you know?

That's good. Yeah, to the question, the more specifically, you know, if it's true that negativity is contagious and, you know, sometimes it feels like it is, then I guess two things about that. We don't want to be receiving that negativity and have that, you know, become a part of us. But also maybe we can hopefully find that sharing joy is also contagious.

I would hope that to be the case. It may, you know, mean that there's more than just, "Well, I'm so happy today," but it, you know, there's got to be a reason for that. And so it might take a greater conversation for them to understand why you can be happy amidst the conditions that you're in. And it's just that, look, this is just very small in contrast to the big picture of what God has. I think we're very short-sighted sometimes. And if we just had a longer perspective, it would be very helpful. Amen.

Another thing that came to mind when you were talking too is that we tend to very easily focus on the things that aren't going as we hoped. And so then the negative things, basically. And we quickly, I don't know, move on from or forget these beautiful and powerful things that God did in our life that were, if you stop and think, are like, "Wow, miraculous," you know? Why do we do that? We so quickly like just move on, and yet we have this focus on negative. And I think it goes back to training our mind and the transformation of our mind and how we look at life and this idea of the big picture and seeking God with trust and joy rather than always looking for, yeah, the things that are not going right for me.