A Time To Reject Acceptance

I woke up at 3:45 this morning because I had a dream about someone and felt the need to pray for them. Knowing I couldn't get back to sleep right away I got online and checked my email. I posted on Facebook about how I got a massage to relieve some anxiety and how I think I should create an arsenal of anti-anxiety activities to help reduce my need for medication eventually. I thought my post was pretty straight forward and honest, but full of hope for a better future based on healthy choices.

The comments I received caught me off guard and I had a rather intense internal reaction. The comments were, I think, supposed to be encouraging, but I got very defensive. They said I needed to practice acceptance as found in the Serenity Prayer and give myself time to learn how to accept my struggle.

At first I was confused. For one, how did my post get confused with my not accepting my struggle. If I didn't accept it I would be trying to hide and avoid it. I am doing neither of those. I am very open about my struggle with anxiety and I am open to being prayed for and even convicted by God on the subject. After all, we are told to be anxious about nothing, but by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make our requests known to God and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:6). Where is the acceptance of anxiety in that scripture?

I felt very defensive and I asked God why I was so upset over what my loved one said. He reminded me of something my sister has been sharing with me. We are complete and whole in Christ, we don't have to accept anything that is less than His best for us. What does this mean?

If I am suffering because of my own sin, or the sin someone else inflicted on me, am I to accept that this suffering is from God with resignation? I think NOT!!!

Suffering, I do not believe, is from God. Suffering is a product of the fall. It is a symptom of this world and the affects of sin. God does not make us suffer. Jesus came to free us from our sin and the affects of sin.

What about all the verses about taking up our cross and suffering with Christ? (Luke 9:23) YES! What about that?

Jesus Christ promised us we would have trouble in this life and that we would most definitely suffer. (John 16:33) He even expects us to suffer with Him(Romans 8:17) in order that we may die to ourselves and come to understand life in Him.(1 Peter 4:1-2) He asks us to rejoice in our sufferng and not lose sight of our faith because it is suffering that produces perseverance which produces character and character brings hope that will not disappoint us because it is based on Jesus Christ.(Romans 5:3-5) But, where in the Bible does it say that God is inflicting us with suffering. From my study of scripture, and I am no scholar, I find that Jesus is in the business of freeing us from our sin and the affects of sin. He has done EVERYTHING to provide for us to live abundantly.(John 3:16, 1Peter 1:3)

STAY WITH ME HERE. I KNOW THIS SOUNDS CONTRADICTORY, BUT I THINK IT WILL BECOME CLEARER AS I CONTINUE.

If you choose to believe that God is the one causing your suffering, who are you going to run to for comfort? I agree that God, in His infinite wisdom and omniscience, allows suffering and even works through suffering to mold us into His image, but I do NOT believe He orchestrates the horrors this life throws at us. The world, our flesh and the devil are good enough at that. "It is for freedom that Christ came to set us free". (Galations 5:1)

I do not accept my anxiety in the sense that I can never be free of it and therefore must learn to live with it. My suffering is temporary. It is there to do His work in me and when the work is complete the need for the suffering will be gone.

What about those who suffer their whole lives with incurable diseases and conditions?

I don't have all the answers, but I believe many people are not healed because they don't even ask. (James 4:2) For those who do ask and believe in faith, but don't receive healing I know that God has a greater purpose in their suffering than we humans can see. Joni Earickson Tada comes to mind. She is a faith filled Christian who happens to be a quadriplegic. She has prayed many times to be healed and yet remains paralyzed. You may say she has accepted her condition in the sense that she knows she cannot control it or change it, but IS it God's will for her to be paralyzed. I don't believe that. I believe God desires that Joni be free to run an dance like me. It is because our spirits are confined to human tents in a world that is temporarily ruled by the prince of the power of the air-the enemy of our soul- that we suffer.(Ephesians 2:2 KJV) What is so great is that Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33) He can use Joni's condition and suffering to reach others with His love. Joni suffers to be made whole in Christ through submission, but she suffers also to be used by God to draw others to Christ. She accepts that.

What I am suggesting is that we do not accept blindly what God has every desire, power and authority to set us free from. I am certain that God desires me to not be anxious and that He has the power and authority to set me free from it as I abide in Him and allow His Love to cast out my fear.(1 John4:18) That is a process. Maybe even a lifelong one, I don't know.

Suffering is not God's desire for us, but sometimes it happens because we live on earth and not in glory with Him yet. He can take it away in a split second. He can move our mountain with our grain of mustard seed faith at anytime. (Matthew 17:20) When He doesn't it is perfectly natural to be disturbed by what we are experiencing. God grieves over our suffering as much as we do, even more, because He knows how it was supposed to be before sin entered the world.(John 11:35)

When I say to reject the acceptance of suffering I am saying that resigning to it feels like the wrong attitude. "Oh this is just God's will for me and I have to accept that I will never be free of this in this life." What a slap in the face to the God who rejected His own Son and watched Him tortured and killed to offer us freedom, healing and wholeness. (Romans 5:10, 1 Peter 2:24)

Then why isn't every Christian free of suffering? Why does God tell us that it is good to suffer with Him? "For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who Love Him and are called according to His purpose."(Romans 8:28)

I searched the concordance and even though my search was not completed I got the impression that there is no scripture to back up the acceptance of suffering. There is plenty of scripture to back up the endurance and perseverance and trusting of God within suffering. What is the difference? Attitude and motivation. Acceptance can be freeing if it compels us to trust Jesus more, but if it just causes us to become complacent, bitter, angry and distant from the God, who wants to bless us through it, than acceptance is a pit.

So, if acceptance makes you trust Jesus more in your suffering than by all means please accept it, but if it is being used as an excuse to not apply faith and take hold of the Hand that can lead you out into the promised land (1 John 2:25) than I suggest rejecting acceptance. Eternal life starts in this life.

I do not accept my suffering with anxiety, but I rest in Jesus as He walks me through this valley to the other side where I'll never fear again- be it in this life or the next. (Psalm 23)

Perhaps this all comes down to semantics in the end. I often struggle with others choice of words and my interpretation of it. If this is the case, I apologize for any confusion.

Jesus bless You with the joy of His Presence in suffering and in peaceful time.