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Transcript 324A
Is it Normal for a Christian to Feel Frustrated?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. I have a couple of questions. The first one is, is it normal for a Christian to be frustrated at times?
HC: Is it normal for Christians to be frustrated at times? Yes, it really is. The reason that it's normal is that we still do not have our perfect bodies. An outstanding example of frustration is found in Romans 7, where we read in verse 19 that the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is declaring, "For the good that I would I do not. But the evil which I would not, that I do." Then he goes on to say in verse 22, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
And so he cries out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" He is frustrated by the fact that he cannot live perfectly holy before God. In his resurrected soul he wants desperately to live for Christ, but because his body is not yet saved, he has not yet received his resurrected body, therefore every time he takes his eyes off Christ a little bit, he begins to be troubled by sin. And so this is a great frustration in his life.
Or again, in II Corinthians 12, he as frustrated by a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. And from the Biblical language, we can probably suggest that this was the fact that the Judaizers, those from the denomination he used to belong to before he was saved, continually harassed him, and went after him and wanted to atone him, and so on, and made his job of bringing the Gospel very very difficult.
And so three times he prayed, "Oh God, is it possible that this might be changed?" And God said, "No. My grace is sufficient. I'll bring victory through your weakness," or the grace of God will be seen through your weakness. And so God left him in that situation, even as God leaves us in sinful bodies.
CALLER: Now another question I have is, is this going to happen throughout our lifetime, until our bodies are resurrected?
HC: Yes. And this is one of the reasons that we long for our resurrected bodies.
CALLER: Because that's what I'm going through. It's like I really honestly want to live for God and obey His Word. But then at times I find myself falling into sin, and I just feel so awful and frustrated. And it's like a battle back and forth.
HC: One of the wisest things to do, however, in growing in grace, is to get victory over sin. If you find that it's always the same sin that's getting in the way, then you've got to do some repenting. It means that you are not repenting yet.
A lot of times we'll have that sin that most easily besets us. Maybe it's the sin of gossiping or the sin of evil desire or the sin of anger, or the sin of, whatever it may be. And we find again and again that it's there. And every time we pray, "Oh God, forgive me," and we wish that it were gone. But because we have a liking for that sin (it's always so nice to get on the phone and hear all these choice tidbits of gossip, it 's always so nice to just blow our stock once in a while [if that happens to be our sin weakness] and just let it fly), later on we're troubled by it, but at the moment there's a certain pleasure in this. Sin is that way.
What we're really hoping for is that God will take away that sin without us repenting. We're afraid that if that sin is altogether gone, we're going to deprive ourselves of something very choice, something that is very desirable, even though we know it's contrary to the will of God.
Now the way to get victory is to repent, turn away from that sin, to recognize that's dirty, rotten sin and it's got to go. As a believer I can't countenance this any longer. "Oh God, strengthen me as I turn away from it." It may mean I've got to lose a friendship, it may mean I've got to change the pattern of my life somewhat. But whatever it takes, that sin has got to go.
Now when we get victory over that sin, and we will, if we mean business if we'll look at that sin square in the eye, that it's rebellion against my Savior, it's got to go, I'm going to turn away from it, I'm going to not pity myself, I'm not going to feel sorry for myself because I can't have that sin any longer, I've had it, I don't want this sin around anymore. When that sin is gone, and it will go, then we can go to work on the next sin. And this is the story of the Christian life.
But as we get victory over this sin and then the next sin, we will also begin to know more and more the joy of salvation, the victory of the cross. Obedience to Christ is such a blessing. It is such a wonderful, wonderful way to live, to live obediently to Christ. I have seen sins in my own life that I had to struggle with and struggle with, and I hated to see them go. And yet, after they went, because I repented of them, and they were replaced by obedience, the joy of obedience is so much more wonderful than any sinful pleasure that came from the sin. There's no comparison at all. The joy of obedience is so much more wonderful.
But my, oh may, because we have an old body that lusts after sin, it's hard for us to see this at the time that we're struggling with that sin.
CALLER: Okay. And one more question. Is compromising a sin? See, I've been in a job for quite a while. And I've had a problem that's bothered me for a long time there, and I've had a desire to leave there. I've been in the same job since I've been a Christian. And sometimes I'm asked to do things that I feel are wrong, that I feel are contrary to the way I believe. And it has bothered me.
HC: I would suggest two things. When you are living a life where you are asked by your superiors—and this could be the wife by her husband (the husband being the head of the house) or the employee by the employer—when you are asked to do something that is sinful, that you believe is contrary to the Word of God, the first thing to do is ask, very and tenderly and very kindly, those who have asked you to do this if there could be another way. Just level with them and say, "You know, I'm a Christian. And I would be much happier if I would not be required to do this, because I really believe with all my heart that this is contrary to the Word of God." At least in the employer/employee relationship, the odds are that they will honor you. They will realize that they are compromising your feelings toward God, they are binding you spiritually, and they will not ask you to do it.
Now on the other hand, if they said, "We're sorry. You work here, and if you don't like what we ask you to do, then you can leave," then you have no alternative but to leave. You have to choose then. You want to stay free. You don't want to be bound in sin. And you are free to leave that employ. Now in the case of the wife over against her husband, if the husband asks her to live in sin, then she will have to disobey and she might be punished for it by her husband. She might be beaten. She might experience a lot of unpleasantness. But she can't divorce. The marriage relationship goes on until death parts.
It's much like if our government asked us to do something that was sinful. If we disobeyed our government, we might be thrown into jail because we disobey. But that would be far preferable than to live walking contrary to the Word of God.
CALLER: So we always have to go back to the Word of God
HC: We always have to go back to the Word of God. Now you think of the martyrs. They were asked to deny Christ, maybe very simply to deny Him. If they did not deny Him, the alternative was to be thrown to the lions, or to be burned at the stake. They really had to make a big decision, didn't they? And so the decision of maybe seeking another job is a very tiny decision compared with these martyrs of old.
But there's a dynamic, you know, in being obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. It may look on the surface like "boy, this is a dumb thing. If I just compromise a little bit . . . I've got a good job, it pays well. Ant if I just compromise a little bit, I can get along over here." But if we obey God, if we really believe that we want to live in accordance with His will, we may have to give up that job. Our next job may not pay as well. But there is a dynamic. There will be blessings that will come into our life, spiritual blessings, blessings of a new dependence upon Christ that ye never experienced before, blessings of being a better witness because we've stood for Christ. I can't name all the blessings that might come, but they will come. There is a dynamic. God is our Lord and our Savior, and He is aware of all that we do.
CALLER: Okay. Well, you've been very helpful.
HC: Thank you for calling. Good night.