An Amazing And Wonderful Truth

An Amazing And Wonderful Truth
By: Dave Palcsak

Before I came to the Lord, I was agnostic most of my life. This includes the entire 22 years I was married. When my ex wife left me she was seeing a guy who I thought was a good friend, I even confided in him about my marital difficulties. This was a bad move on my part because he used my words against me to aid his nefarious cause…I was not pleased. As I saw it, I never cheated and never abused my wife so I was a wonderful husband who was being horribly wronged. In retrospect, I see that I was not a godly spouse and can understand why she left me.

I don’t recall exactly how long it was after my wife and I split up that I happened to be challenged by my brother. He questioned my “faith” in agnosticism, which I thought was rock solid. His argument was persuasive enough to lead me on a spiritual quest. My testimony is on this website and if you read it, you’ll see that, after quite the struggle, I came to Christ. Praise God indeed!

Now, our Lord is clear on forgiveness; He forgives us as we forgive others. But I knew that could not include my one time friend who had stabbed me right in the spine, so I made a bargain with God. You see, I had promised this guy, and I was absolutely sincere in this promise, that if he ever attended an outing where my children were present, I would beat him to a pulp. This promise gave me what I considered to be a very convenient out. It’s a sin to lie, right, so I had to keep my word about pummeling this guy and in no way could I forgive him. By forgiving him I become a liar! I had every angle neatly covered… or so I thought.

Eventually, God made it very clear to me that He rejected my bargain, most strenuously. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and I’m certain it took longer than it should, but I did finally come to realize that I needed to forgive this guy. I didn’t feel like doing it. I was upset that I had to do it. I was pretty sure it wouldn’t take. I doubt I even meant it, as I started to speak it in my prayers. I mean seriously, how can something so contrary to what I really felt come to pass? The short answer is; it did.

The world tells us to trust our hearts, which means trusting our flesh. The Bible tells us, that out of the heart comes wickedness and that our flesh can in no way enter the Kingdom of heaven. So how did my flesh accomplish such a marvelous thing as to forgive what I did? Well, It wasn’t me who forgave; it was Christ in me. I didn’t realize it at the time and the glorious Truth is; I didn’t need to understand it, for it to work. I was (until very recently) proud of myself because I could come to forgive such a wrong. Now, that’s not altogether a bad thing, in itself, but it becomes a bad thing if the next step isn’t taken. And that step is, realizing that we truly are capable of nothing apart from Him. James hits the nail on the head when he tells us that all good gifts come from Above, (James 1:17). God’s gifts are much more than we can comprehend and I doubt this fact ever changes…at least as long as we are in these tents.

What I really didn’t understand at first was that God did the work of forgiveness… I thought I did. My pride was misplaced. I had to get the credit because if God got all the glory, why am I even here! That’s how I felt. We’re taught to trust our feelings and that’s what I was doing. But feelings aren’t trustworthy. You can’t depend on your feelings because you will often “feel” like acting contrary to God’s will. Trusting your feelings gives Satan a foothold into your life.

It’s not easy placing His will over your feelings, and in a worldly sense, it’s downright counter intuitive. But we need to always remember, we were never promised easy. What we’re promised is much, much more than that. We are promised what is right and what is true. So, where ever you happen to be in your walk, trust Him and never stop progressing. It’s an awesome thing when a baby first crawls but if a 3 year old is still at that stage, there’s a problem. To remain stationery is to be stagnate, to be stagnate is to go backwards, to go backwards is to fall away. Like all spiritual things, we must grow.

Anything worthwhile is worth working for and the Kingdom of God is no different. If you don’t feel like getting up 20 minutes earlier, than necessary, so you can read the Word of God; do it anyway. You don’t think being kind fits your mood; be kind anyway. No matter what you face on a daily basis, “feelings” will be getting in the way of Kingdom duties. Do the best you possibly can to overcome, at all times. Acting in His will and going against your own feelings is ALWAYS the proper thing to do.

As you continue to work on this and your proficiency increases, you will begin to understand this amazingly wonderful truth. Your feelings will come more and more in line with His will.

God always wants what’s best for us and He always knows what’s best for us. Trust Him and keep your nose to the grindstone, He will do the rest. Don’t think you won’t often fail, because you will…everyone does. Just try harder, always, try harder.

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