A BIPOLAR FAITH

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago. With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; You crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.

You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes. I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.

But now You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go out with our armies. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten You; we had not been false to Your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from Your path. But You crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; You covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord! Why do You sleep? Rouse Yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of Your unfailing love.

Psalm 44

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Are you bipolar in your faith?

I think we all are at one time or another.

By definition, the word bipolar means to be marked by two diametrically opposed natures. Applied to faith, it could simply mean that at times we have a faith that is strong and at other times, have no faith at all.

As I said, if we’re honest about ourselves and our lives, I think we can all relate to inconsistencies in our faith walk.

As we look at the 44th Psalm, we see the people of Israel struggling with a bipolar approach to their faith as well. Let’s see this in action and then consider what God has to say to us about His expectations concerning our faith in Him. Look at the words of this psalm:

We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what You did in their days, in days long ago. With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; You crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.

You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through You we push back our enemies; through Your name we trample our foes. I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but You give us victory over our enemies, You put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise Your name forever.

But now You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go out with our armies. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten You; we had not been false to Your covenant. Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from Your path. But You crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; You covered us over with deep darkness.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake, Lord! Why do You sleep? Rouse Yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do You hide Your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground. Rise up and help us; rescue us because of Your unfailing love.

The psalm starts out with a real feel-good attitude about it.

The people are proclaiming the good works of the Lord throughout the generations. Every victory gained by Israel was because of God’s might and power with them, not any action of man. It was God who rescued them from their foes out of His deep love for them. And the Israelites realized that the same God who had delivered and rescued the Israelite’s ancestors was the same God who was with them, helping them to victory and putting their enemies to shame.

If you only read the opening verses, you would think all was perfect for Israel. They even professed to boasting about the Lord all day long and vowed to praise His name forever.

But then an odd shift happens in the faith of the Israelites. They seem to lose it as powerfully as they once had it.

For right after they speak of how good God has been, not only to them but to their ancestors as well, we find the Israelites questioning God, whether He was even present in their circumstances and whether He was bringing judgment on them without justification. It constituted a radical shift in faith attitude and placed a spotlight on the bipolar nature of their trust in the Lord.

The God who had brought them to victory before when times were better was now the God who was rejecting and humbling them now, abandoning them in battle and giving them over to their enemies. The once mighty Israelites were relegated to being a “byword among the nations” who now sought to have their way with the people of God who looked helpless under the disgrace and shame they felt in defeat.

Why was all this happening to them? We sense the Israelites seeking answers. They viewed themselves as above reproach and yet saw their misfortune as an indication of God’s judgment upon them, a judgment they couldn’t understand. You could almost hear the people pleading, “God make yourself known to us again and help us? Can’t you see your people are in need? Where are you God?”

Maybe you have been in the same place as the people of Israel. Maybe you’re there today.

Perhaps you have lived in times of plenty in your life, times where you could see God moving in everything that was happening, abundantly blessed and highly favored. And perhaps you also have gone through times where God seemed absent and you wondered if He had deserted you when you needed Him the most.

The truth of the matter when we’re talking about faith is that it’s easy to be faithful when all is going well. Anyone can be faithful then. But what about when times are difficult? Isn’t it more challenging to maintain our trust in God when life’s difficulties are pressing down on us?

Friends, we must understand that the true refining of our faith comes when we must wait for God to act on our behalf, even if that means we endure some suffering in life. God never promised us that our lives would be trouble-free or that every day would be full of sunshine. Some days will be hard and trying. Sometimes we’ll find ourselves in darkness. It happens in life but we seem to be taken by surprise when it does instead of seeking the Lord and trusting Him even more when we’re going through tribulations, knowing and believing He is just as much with us then as He is when everything is going well. We need to learn to persevere through challenges by faith in the One who will always come to our rescue. Remember that Jesus suffered in the worst possible way for us and so to live the full Christian experience, to experience the things of Jesus, we need to expect that some suffering will be a part of that package.

And we can’t assume hardship falls on us just because we have wronged in some way. None of us are perfectly righteous so we fully deserve God’s wrath because of our sinful nature but God can send us into difficulty even if we were innocent. Sending us into trial to test and refine our faith doesn’t always indicate punitive measures. Often, it’s meant to be instructive as the Lord seeks to more fully grow the fruits of the Spirit within us.

A bipolar faith runs hot and cold. This isn’t the kind of faith God expects from us. Not even close. We simply cannot forget that the God who has been victorious over the ages on behalf of His people will continue to be victorious forever. Nothing or no one can ever triumph over Him. No circumstances are too great for Him to overcome but we must remember that God delivers us in His perfect time which typically is different from our expectations and longings.

It’s little wonder why the scriptures exhort us over and over again to wait on the Lord. We should embrace that call in faith and trust in the God who can and will do all things for us, the God who is with us, the God who loves and cares for us more than we’ll ever know.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com