God vs. Psychology

Once again, this post is about something that has been bothering me lately, so here's your chance to stop reading.

Sweet. Thanks. I promise to try not to get too negative. I had a conversation with a new-ish Christian the other day. She said that was having a problem--and here it is, ready? She felt like having Christ in her life was just making her feel really good. That's all. She explained by saying that she felt like, when she accepted Christ, that there was something deeper. She expressed that all she felt now was pretty much the equivalent of how you feel after successful sessions with a psychiatrist. She said that when she looked to God, she did think that it would make her feel better, but also thought that that relationship would be much more than that. I can't help but say that's the problem I have with a lot of Christians today. I hear stuff all the time like "I feel so much better about my life now that I believe" or "it's like nothing can phase me now" or "God is making me feel really good about myself." And it's not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that that is a very tiny part of your walk. You know I wish I could find a passage of scripture where Jesus says "all who follow me will be perfectly content with their life, they're struggles will be no more, and they will be completely free from problems." If there was scripture that said that, we could probably just throw out most of the rest of the Bible. There would be no reason to read that other stuff about trusting Him and struggling with sin would there? I mean that would make the choice to lay down your life and follow Him a no-brainer wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, He never said that. And just from my general understanding of who He is, I would bet that there's a reason for that. I don't think Jesus wants to be our Great Psychiatrist, giving us solutions to all our problems and making us feel better about ourselves. A promise like that would require very little faith to accept. What he does want to do is make our faith stronger, and give us hope. One passage that defines what I think is God's way of dealing with us in trials is one that almost everyone has heard: when Jesus walked on water. Peter has a couple problems, it sounds like to me: (1) He wants to know if the man he sees in the distance is indeed Jesus, and (2) the only way he can find out is to walk out on the water to Him (a feat not easily accomplished by most people). And when Christ told Peter to step out onto the water, I doubt He was thinking, "here is a way I can show Peter that he can walk on water." It seems to me that he was trying either show Peter what little faith he truly had in Christ, or simply to show the power of faith. The same goes for us. When we run into a problem, I have to think that God gets tired of us praying for an answer. I have to believe that He would much rather us believe that He has it in control, and instead of looking for an answer, look at what He is trying to tell/show us in the meantime. Often times for me, what He is trying to show me is that my faith is nowhere near what it should be.

And so that is one of the problems I have with the way the Bible has been treated lately: as a self-help book with some rules in it. I get the feeling sometimes that when we read it, we want the answer in plain words to anything we are struggling with at the time. No doubt the Bible was given to us as a form of guidance, but when you condense a passage of God-breathed scripture into a few bullet points and methods to solve your day-to-day problems, it tends to make me feel that we're missing the point.

And here's the other thing. Jesus never intended for us to be saved so we could be happy all the time. In I John we are told that "those who claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." And if you think that Jesus never struggled with anything and was 100% happy all of the time, I'd love to read you some scripture. I just feel like they're are plenty of people and ways to make yourself happy with your life. You can turn on the TV and find Oprah or Dr. Phil, or go talk to any psychiatrist to find a way to do that. Or even turn on Joel Osteen for that matter and find "your best life now." There's only one Jesus, and he promises a lot more than happiness...