Read John 6:25-69

In a Call To Die, David Nasser teaches that God will give us hard teachings as we follow Him. This statement is very true and led me to think of two thoughts and some encouragement.

The hardest thing for many of us to accept is the harsh truth that we are sinners needing redemption. The good news begins with bad news, God is good, and we are not… that can be a hard pill to swallow.

Another tough point of the gospel is that not only are we evil, but we cannot do anything to earn salvation or redemption. Our efforts to do so are contaminated with selfish ambitions and deceit and our debt is too great.

We need to accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness by the shedding of His blood – if you have not settled these points in your mind or if you have not decided to make Jesus your Lord and Savior, why not now?

The hard teachings continue even after accepting this truth.

As a believer, do you find it hard to believe that even after the sin you chose to participate in yesterday (or last week or the same sin over and over for years), God still loves you as much as He did before that sin and wants to spend time with you? 

Is it hard to accept that you do not have to earn a spot in God’s presence again after betraying Him by choosing sin over His will? (Consider Romans 5:1)

What if I told you that your prayers are not more effective because you were “focused enough” or “eloquent enough”?

The effectiveness of prayer rest solely on the goodness and strength of God and not your ability to perform well in it (Matthew 6:7).

Let’s keep going, do you believe me when I tell you that you can have peace after fumbling through a presentation of the gospel imperfectly because God is the one who will use our imperfect words and actions to accomplish His good and perfect will?

What truth is hard for you to accept?

I know one of my greatest temptations is to look to my performance to gauge how Christ may feel about me or how effective I can be for Him.

Again, what hard teaching have you been unwilling to accept?

It may be a truth that comes out of considering the gospel or it may be when God tells you it is time to give up the desires you have for your life.

Are you living your life committed to glorifying God through your words, actions, and decisions? Or is life still all about how much money you make, what other people think of you, status, pleasure, or comfort?

A hard truth is that if you are there (and this hurts to even type) you are considered a worldly spiritual infant. (Look into 1 Corinthians 3:1-4: Paul brings tough words to a church consumed with the worldly desire for status).

This hurts to type because I fall back into wanting to be comfortable and wanting to just get by. There are many days where I just want to finish my job for the day and find something entertaining to get me through the rest of the day… forget about the fact that there are people who have not heard about Jesus, forget about the fact that my desire for comfort may lead me to be harsh with my daughter because she’s “disrupting my day.”

This is the mindset I hope to destroy with this challenge (while relying on the Holy Spirit to do His work of changing me).

If you resonate with anything I have said here, I also want to add that there is grace!

Again, we are not effective for God because of our own performance and God uses our weakness to bring about His glory.

We are supposed to be flawed despite our efforts!

It is very hard to accept that we are broken vessels made useful by God.

The great thing about receiving hard truths from God is that He always presents them to us with an abundance of forgiveness and that God enables us not only to accept these truths but also to carry out doing whatever it is He is calling us to.

So what should we do?

I would encourage you to ask God to open your eyes to whatever hard truth He needs you to see, to pray for the wisdom to accept it, and to pray for the strength to live it out and to love Him.

Consider memorizing this verse: Matthew 16:23.
What are you setting your mind on?