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Erasing
The Interrogation Marks
Life is full
of mysteries. There are many things we wish we might
understand. It would be much easier to go happily upon
life's way if we could understand everything that happens
to us, and if we could see our way before us.
We all ask questions. We all wonder why some things occur
and what they mean. But some of us are more given to
asking questions than others. Some put a question mark
after everything. We have pointed out in the previous
chapter some of the questions commonly asked. Many people
form the habit of being uncertain. They cultivate
indecision so it is hard for them to make up their mind.
Following this year after year increases the uncertainty
of their lives. They are never quite sure about things.
There is a lack of that positiveness that gives certainty.
How shall we overcome that uncertainty ? First, we must
set ourselves to the task of breaking ourselves of the
habit we have developed. That is not easy, but it is
possible. We should form right habits of thinking; we
should look upon things from a reasonable standpoint. We
should not look upon people and circumstances, and
everything about us, as enemies. We should not live in a
defensive attitude. We should not believe that everything
we attempt to do will turn out bad, nor that everything is
against us.
The majority of things in life are in our favor. God
created our environment, speaking in a general way, and he
did not make that environment an always hostile
environment. It is true that there are many obstacles in
life, many unfavorable influences. But the helpful things
are more numerous. The influences for good are ore
prevalent than are the evil influences. This is true wine'
we hold the right attitude ourselves. God wants us to get
the interrogation marks out of a great many things.. He
wants us to know definitely our relations to himself. He
wants us to have an inner consciousness that these
relations are acceptable to him. He wants us to hare a
religious experience, with such a basis of certainty that
it brings to us a constant assurance of rightness.
We need a consciousness of God's fatherhood. Many know
from an intellectual standpoint that God is their father,
but they cannot realize it. They hope he is their father.
In a way they believe he is their father, but ten it comes
to having the inner satisfaction of realizing the relation
of sonship to him they know little of hunt To them it is
not a practical thing.
Some imagine God is ready to cut them off from himself for
any little trifling deviation from propriety. Their life
is influenced more by fear of God than by lore of God. If
they have a consciousness that there has been something in
their life worthy of reproof they count themselves
estranged from God. All their joy is gone. Their attitude
toward themselves and toward their relation to God is well
illustrated by something woman said to me recently. These
are her words, "If had to ask the Lord to forgive me,
I would think I would have to get justified and sanctified
over again."
Is God really our Father? Would he so readily break those
tender ties between his soul and ours and cast into outer
darkness even tho we had been overcome some sudden
temptation, if we had in weakness yield to something
without intent to offend him? Most of have experienced
times when we felt God's disapproval for something. We
recognized that we were in fault. As soon as the thing was
done or said we immediate l felt a pang of regret. To a
certain extent such thin l may make a breach between us
and God, but this breach is only partial and may at once
be repaired.
If we take the right course God is ready to forgive I He
is ready to repair the breach, to restore the interrupted
flow of fellowship. Experiences such as this a not
interruptions of the Christian life; they are mere
regrettable incidents in it. Those whom God cuts o are
those who turn away from him, those who in spirit rebel
against him.
Sin lies in the attitude of the will toward God. Man times
things are done that need repentance of a certain sort
which because the will has not turned away from God, do
not result in one's being cut off from God. Perhaps we
have all heard teaching of such a technical nature that it
made a person either a Christian of angelic character and
deportment or else a sinner rejected of God. Between these
two there is a great middle ground. None of us are too
angelic, but at the same time we are not servants of the
devil. Between these two extremes lies a great range of
human experience in which men walk with God, their
heavenly Father, guided by his justice, but overshadowed
with his mercy.
Many times in life we think some strange thing has
happened to us. We have experiences we cannot understand.
Perhaps many of us have not learned God's method of
dealing with his sons and daughters sufficient to
understand that it is not his displeasure that is being
manifested but his hand of discipline. He has loved us
with an everlasting love. That is not a love that can be
easily broken. God's acts flow out of his love toward us.
That everlasting love manifests itself in everlasting
kindness. Jer. 31: 3 says, "I have loved thee with an
everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I
drawn thee."
This is God's attitude toward all his children, even those
who have faults and shortcomings. God does not expect us
to be as wise as he is, nor to exhibit the same power in
our life, nor to be always as perfect as he is ID our
conduct. He does expect us to do right. He does expect us
sincerely to try to please him. But he does not expect us
to be free from blunders, mistakes, weaknesses, and those
frailties that are commonly found in humanity. We should
not excuse ourselves in doing anything improper. If we do
so he will not excuse us. But with loving mercy he draws
us back to him. As it is written, "As a father
pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him." That pity manifests itself in his
longsuffering, his tender mercy, his ready forgiveness.
One thing very difficult for many people to learn is that
the chastening rod of God is applied in love, not in
anger. We are told that God "scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth," and that that scourging is the proof
of our sonship. So often people are inclined to take it as
an evidence that they are no longer sons. They look upon
it as a mark of God's disapproval, o' even of his anger.
We are told that his chastening is for our profit. He does
it not for his own pleasure, but that we may be made
better by it. It is a mark of his love. He says, "As
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten" (Rev. 3 :19).
Read Heb. 12: 5-13.
Note carefully God's attitude in his chastening. We are
all ready to admit the truth of the eleventh verse which
says, "No chastening for the present seemeth to be
joyous, but grievous." None of us like to be
chastened, but yet that is necessary; out of it come the
fruits of righteousness. When the Lord chastens us,
therefore, let us bear it with meekness. Let us profit by
it. Let us not be grieved and discouraged. The Lord says,
"Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the
feeble knees" (vs. 12). You can understand what that
means. It means—stand up like a man. Do not bow down and
tremble for fear. And he adds, "Make straight paths
for your feet."
Gold is purified in the furnace. It is not destroyed; it
is made the better by the flames. You and I must pass
through the furnace. The purpose of the furnace is that we
may be purged from our dross, that we may be refined, that
we may be rid of grossness, that we may be made more
spiritual. Does the gold ask, "Why hast thou put me
in the furnace?" If you and I have to pass through
the furnace of affliction or sorrow, of losses or
failures, let us submit ourselves to the hand of God Let
us not question his mercy or his goodness; neither let us
question ourselves. Let us endure as "seeing him who
is invisible." Let us trust his hand, and trust his
love. Let us not fear that we shall be destroyed.
We must often endure the chisel of pain as God carves in
us his image. We desire to be in his image. We desire to
be godlike in character. Remember that God hurts only to
heal. Like the surgeon he does not hurt willingly, but
only of necessity. We have read of the balm of Gilead, but
of what use is that balm until we are hurt? There would be
no such balm were there no hurts in life.
God knows there are things that will hurt us. He knows
that sufferings of various sorts are inevitable. He knows
that we shall bring upon ourselves by lack of wisdom or
carefulness, or by lack of understanding, or in other
ways, many things that are hard to endure. But he would
not have these things unduly trouble us nor make us feel
that he has become our enemy. He would have us ever to
recognize that he is our tender, compassionate Father. He
would comfort us in our troubles as a mother comforteth
her children. In our times of trouble he would not have us
run from him nor shrink from his presence. He would have
us run into his arms and tell him all our troubles, our
questionings, our heartaches. He would have us so to trust
him that the interrogation-marks would be removed.
So many Christians are always on the defensive. They are
always facing an enemy either without or within. Their
lives are a constant battle with them selves, a struggle
to repress something. They are constantly harassed lest
they do wrong or feel wrong, lest they be deceived, etc.
They are a prey to apprehensions. They are constantly
trying to strengthen themselves in an attitude of
resistance against something. They hold themselves under a
strain. They are constantly troubled over things that God
would not have them be troubled over. Instead of living
thus God wants us to live positive lives, to be on the
offensive, to be victorious. He desires us to be
courageous, confident, serene, and without anxiety,
conscious of divine help.
The open-hearted God is a fountain of power. He would have
our hearts open to receive his power. He would not have us
trust in self but in his sufficiency of grace and power
for our every need. He would have us constantly believe
that in any situation that may arise there will be no lack
of what is necessary to make us overcomers. By believing
this, and acting as tho we believe it, we shall be
overcomers. We shall rid ourselves of many of life's
question-marks. Some of them will remain to eternity, but
many of them need trouble us no longer. Those that cannot
be removed need not darken our lives. Trusting him we can
go onward, singing the glad song that flows from the sense
of his Fatherhood and his
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