It is hard work to believe what is already true. I am more convinced of that each day. While I pay verbal assent to my identity as God's child, I'm more likely to be affected by a positive performance review or a cutting slight.
This is a quote from John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress: "Run for heaven, fight for heaven, labor for heaven, wrestle for heaven, or you are like to go without it... He that undertakes to believe, sets upon the hardest task that ever was proposed to man... believing is sweating work."
Such believing is especially hard during the "dark night of the soul," when hope evades us and nothing seems to comfort. It does help for me to frame the fight as not one to earn righteousness or approval, or add to anything... it is a fight to believe what is already true. It is a fight of faith - to hold on to something we did not procure and rest in something we are in no way responsible for.
No comments:
Post a Comment