Escaping responsibility

I have often had those thoughts that no one is supposed to have, or wants to admit. I am guessing lots of parents, especially of special needs children, have felt the same.  Thoughts like "at least if he died, I would have relief" or the temptation of just abandoning him to someone else. Feeling your child to be a burden, one you did not ask for. Resenting his demands on your life, time, and energy. Wishing him gone by some means.  And all the while knowing, this is not a good thing to be thinking, yet the thoughts occur to you.

The Lord has kindly freed me from that mentality, hopefully in a lasting way, by showing me the natural outworking of it. "If you were to abandon your child, what then?" Then I could never face Him in peace again. I would have been saying, "I am not willing to submit to You in this. I am not willing to accept what comes from Your hand. Your strength and grace are not enough for this trial. I choose to abdicate my responsibilities rather than to remain Your servant."

I had to choose Jesus, and my trial, or neither of them. They went together.

For any trial in which God does not give us a legitimate way of escape, this must be true. To abandon my God-given duty - to get out of difficulty by some unbiblical means - is to abandon my faith. It is to tell Jesus that although everything I need for life and godliness is found in Him, He does not have sufficient resources to help me in this case.  It is to tell the world that my faith is a fraud, and that my Savior is not really strong enough to bear me through the trials He puts me in.

Being faithful under fire is not optional. If you will have Jesus, you must take everything He gives you. To escape by means He has not appointed will take away your peace and your greatest treasure -  unhindered fellowship with your God.

Be faithful unto death!

Rev.12:11, "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death."

The purpose of a Christian living yet in this world, is to point people to Jesus - Jesus, their indescribably wonderful Savior and King!  To show others that Jesus is the thing they value above everything else. That He is worth giving up everything else to gain. That He is worth serving with all my being, as a living sacrifice!

How could we possibly do this in a life in which we have no need to give up anything for Jesus' sake? This is why "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2Tim.3:12). If there were no persecution, if there were nothing to sacrifice for His sake, how would we show Jesus to be our treasure above all else?

Our goal here is not, to make everyone think well of us, as though by doing so they would be attracted to Jesus. Our goal is to make much of Christ, to have people think well of HIM, to show them His beauty and glory and love and justice. To be totally His, sold out for Him, known as those who "serve their God continually" like Daniel.

This is why the lot of the Church in this world is not one of dominance, but of being persecuted. It is God's planned way for His worth to be proclaimed, as His people value Him above all else, at great cost to themselves. His word to us is not, "preserve your life at all cost" but rather "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. ... Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." (Rev.2:10).