The story was fiction. Two boys were so abused by their father that they went insane. One became a serial killer and the other went mad trying to rescue him. An extreme case.
I contrasted it with Christian parents who raise their children well and yet the children grow up without any interest in God. It is easy to blame ourselves for that. What did I miss? What did I do wrong? And beat up myself because nothing I did made any difference.
And what does God say about this?
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. (Psalm 127:1)
Unless the Lord is in it, no matter how excellent the parenting, no matter how successful the children are in a worldly sense, all labor is in vain. What counts is not my efforts but the plan and power of God. the Bible makes this plain; I am responsible to love and obey Him, but I cannot change lives. Only God can do that. This He makes clear to His people:
Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. (Deuteronomy 9:5–6)
God has a plan. He will fulfill His plan. I’m a mere tagalong on this mysterious rollercoaster ride and a stubborn one at that. I read His plan from Genesis to Revelation and am in awe. He created us but those first couple in that perfect garden decided they knew better than God. Such arrogance. It sadly became part of our genetic code. Since then, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Humanity is a stubborn, ‘I know it all’ entity, yet our loving Creator determined to rescue us from sin and the consequences of sin. The Bible tells the story of that first rebellion and its results, and of God’s solution in sending His Son to die for our sin so we could be set free to live as He intended.
But His plan was not coercion or automatic. To be in on it requires the miracle of a renewed heart, a re-creation that changes stubbornness to humility and willingness to listen to Him and obey Him. No one can do that by themselves. No one can make it happen in others. All the preaching won’t do it — unless God chooses to use the words of a preacher, or the words and lives of parents, or Christian friends, or some deed done in obedience to Him.
Yet the outcome of His plan is also described in this great book, the Bible. Near the end it says:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. “Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:9–17)
God’s plan will be fulfilled. It is not fiction. This book speaks to what happens in my life. It hits me where I need to let go of my way, my stubborn independence. It reassures me that God is listening. It backs up every experience, every longing. Through it, I know what to do, what to avoid, what to say and to when to shut up. I also know my stubborn streak is persistent and must be resisted and ignored until that day I see Jesus and my re-creation is complete.
APPLY: Keep on keeping on, praying for those who do not yet know Him, encouraging those who do. I must trust Jesus. My stubbornness stands in His way and accomplishes nothing.
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