Yesterday we continued our current series “When You’re Going Through Hell Don’t Stop.” This is a study focused on the fact that all of us go through pain. Everyone goes through the fire but not everyone gets burned. It’s not only how you receive the pain, but the purpose you see in the pain, and the process you use to turn the pain into good, that matters.
So we’re talking about betrayal. This is a long, painful road that many of us walk down, and all of us will walk down eventually. Even Jesus was betrayed by those nearest Him. The question is, what do you do when your buddy is the one holding the knife sticking out of your back? Or your wife, or your husband, or your son or daughter, or your partner, or someone you’ve known and loved; someone who had your back, or at least you thought so?
We talked about the five lies we believe about love and friendship, and how those lies can lead to really shallow, tactical relationships that we somehow think are deep and rich.
We talked about the danger of bitterness. Bitterness is often a poison we drink, hoping it will kill the other fellow. We talked about what it does to you. The ultimate betrayal is when you betray yourself by allowing yourself to drift into bitterness and cynicism.
We end up this talk by talking about the purpose in this pain. Remember the big idea, the thesis of this entire series is that God has a purpose in all the pain we go through. That purpose is achieved through a process over time aimed at helping us forge a string first-hand, flourishing, and fruitful faith.
This is no Sunday school stuff. This is more like seminary grad school, 201 and 301. But it’s where you need to go if you’re going to be a faith-walker and allow the refiner’s fire to have its purifying and strengthening effect on you.