Faith is hard work!

We often consider faith as only being passive. When we trust, we don't do anything, we must simply wait and believe. However, faith is hard work often resulting in difficult actions.

It was not easy for Christ, when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, to commit to going to his death on a cross. If it were, he wouldn't have asked his father three times to remove it, or break out in a bloody sweat while asking.

It is not easy placing our trust in God when things look impossible or potentially painful.

It's not easy asking God to do for us what we think we can do better ourselves.

It's not easy to humble ourselves and depend on him, trusting he is providing for us exactly what is best and most needed at that time when our circumstances seem to indicate just the opposite.

It's not easy accepting what we think we need is not always what we really need.

It's not easy believing God is working in the midst of all the craziness in the world, politically, morally, and economically. 

All of these require faith that God is bigger than what's going on around us and accomplishing his good and perfect plan, not just for the world but for us personally.

Several examples in Hebrews 11:4-31 indicate faith almost always resulted in actions, often very challenging actions (emphasis added)

4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks. 

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. 

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. 

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. 

13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. 

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. 20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. 24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.  

32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Many of these examples indicate faith resulted in action as well as "being still" before God.

Can these occur at the same time? Once we have decided to trust God in the face of challenges, the struggle stops. The battle within us - not necessarily outside us - ends. We experience a settled calm and determination to accomplish the task, as we see here with Christ. 

And he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will ... And he came the third time and said to them (Peter, James, and John), "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? 

It is enough; the hour has come (i.e. it's time to take action and fulfill my task). The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand." - Jesus. Mar 14:36, 40-42. 

There are times we must be still and take no actions regarding a specific circumstance but that is only so we might receive wisdom from God to know how to act. Action is still the eventual result. To be still is to still the heart, not necessarily our hands and feet.

For a further discussion on the fight of faith click here.

#Faith #HardWork #Peace #Calm #ThoughtsAboutGod #ThotsAboutGood

increasing our desire for God

When our passion for God is greater than our desire for other things, the appeal of other things, fades. This enables us to turn away and not seek them as our chief thing - i.e. as our God.

But how do we increase our desire for God? We must start with faith. 

Other things are usually more alluring and give greater immediate gratification than pursuing God. However, when we ¹believe God is superior - even if He doesn't feel like it in the moment - this strengthens our desire for Him i.e. our desires and actions fall in line when we pursue God by faith. Stepping out in faith on the ²promise of partaking in more of His love, beauty, wisdom, integrity, power, etc increases our passion for God, reducing the need to experience these before we step out. We are told on five different occasions "the just shall live by faith" for good reason.

But to do so takes ³incredible faith. To take up our cross and deny ourselves is difficult because it is contrary to our natural feelings and desires. We are asked to walk away from anything we normally derive a sense of pleasure, meaning, purpose and love from in the belief that God is greater. A Cross is painful. It feels more like death than life. 

And it is. It is death to self-gratification and self-salvation. But this is where God best meets us, and we experience His power most. As Paul stated, when he is weak - in his natural strength - he is strong in His dependence on God and his actions for Him. We can deny ourselves something we desire more at the moment, if and when we believe God is ultimately a superior pursuit - even though the allure of something else feels greater and God may not feel superior at that moment.

In short, if our faith is ³great enough, it will carry us forward in obedience, stirring in us a desire for more of God. If we are having difficulty in obeying God, we don't redouble our efforts, we must feed and strengthen our faith. 

Recap and summary

We can deny ourselves something we desire more than God when we believe He is a superior pursuit - even though the allure of something else feels greater and God may not feel superior. When we believe God is superior - even if He doesn't feel like it at the moment - it increases our desire for Him - i.e. our desires fall in line with our actions of pursuing God by faith. Stepping out in faith on the integrity of His character, love, power, wisdom, beauty for us, etc. versus our feelings often results in a greater passion/feelings for God. 

However, taking up our cross and denying ourselves is not an enjoyable feeling. A cross is painful. It feels more like death than life. But it is also where God meets us and we experience His power. As Paul stated when he is weak - in self-reliance - he is strong in his dependence on God.

A recap.

So the question becomes, how do we increase our faith? We are told faith comes by hearing. Hearing what? The word(s) - ²promises - of God. Promises of what? About ⁴who God is; that God is for us, not against us and loves us with infinite boundless love. The greatest evidence of this is what Christ did to restore us back to His Father. If God gave us that which we needed most - removal of our condemnation and shame so we would be restored back into good standing and relationship with the infinitely loving and beautiful God - how much more is He willing to give us everything else necessary to know Him more? We must remind ourselves of all that God has done for us to strengthen our trust in the promises of what He has yet to do for us. 

For a discussion on how God addresses our two greatest needs through Christ, click here.

For a further discussion on self-denial, click here. 
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¹There are various kinds or levels of belief. I am not talking about belief-faith on a casual level but at the level we would stake our very lives on. That is the belief God calls us to. 

A story to illustrate. 

Jason was laid off from work unexpectedly. After a few weeks, as hard as he tried, he couldn't find anything. So he ran an idea by Chad while working out one day - they were formally on the same high school gymnast team and regularly worked out together.  

Jason said, "since I have always been athletic with a great sense of balance, and also want to launch out with a business of my own, I was thinking I could walk across the small canyon on a tight rope pushing a wheelbarrow. You know the one just outside of town. I'll use the publicity to launch myself as a personal trainer and build a clientele. What do you think? Do you think I can pull it off?" 

Chad said, "You were the state champion, so if anyone can do it, you can Jason. I think you should go for it. " 

So Jason began training. Chad had some media experience and contacts, so he offered to reach out to his contacts to promote the event. Chad believed in Jason that much, and Jason trusted Chad would do an outstanding job. 

As things progressed, Jason would periodically ask Chad, "do you really think I can pull this off?" Chad always replied, "Absolutely. If anyone could do it, it's you." Being encouraged by Chad's support, he continued.

Finally, several weeks later, the day of the big event had come. As they set everything up, the crowd and the local media started showing up to capture it all. They estimated there were at least 1000 people there. 

Jason and Chad were excited but nervous. As Jason positioned himself on the rope with the wheelbarrow, he looked over at Chad one last time and asked, "do you really think I can do this?" Without hesitation, Chad said,"absolutely," to which Jason replied, "Great, get in the wheelbarrow." 

There is a difference between saying we believe God and getting in the wheelbarrow. When God asks us to trust Him, He's saying get in the wheelbarrow. 

²And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Heb 11:6 

What is the nature of our reward? It is experiencing more of God who is the source of life, love, and all things. For more on this click here.

³And incredible faith occurs when we see more and more of how huge, loving, wise, etc. God is. If you have small faith, it is only because your understanding of God is small. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you more so your faith becomes greater. 

⁴This is why it's vital we go to God and his promises regularly. Call it quiet time, or a time of worship or devotion. What it's called doesn't matter; what occurs during that time does. 

This is also why meeting together with fellow believers is vital. It stirs our faith and helps us see God in action in the lives of others. All these things remind us of God's faithfulness and stir us to greater faith.

Spirit driven

How do we know if a deed is Spirit driven/empowered? 

If it is done to bring honor (glory) to God out of love for and trust in God, i.e. it is a deed that is from Him, through Him, and to Him. It is a Spirit driven response to God's first treating us with love, honor, and value by sending His Son to restore us to the Source (Father) of love i.e. it is driven by our love for Him as a response to His love for us.

Operating in the Spirit is the interaction (reciprocation) between the ¹Source of love and the recipient (us). God - the ¹source - is lovely and trustworthy (and has already fully proven his love in giving us Christ). His great love poured out on us in and through Christ (without our doing anything to provoke/cause it), awoke our hearts to His love, calling (wooing) us to love, trust and follow him in response. Obedience is the fruit of God's love poured out on us through Christ in, by, and through the Spirit of reciprocal love between the Father and Son.

A truly good deed must always start with God, i.e. there must be a lovely and trustworthy object (God) in which the subject (us) can place their love and trust. 

Why? 

1. Without a worthy object, there can be (and is) no love and trust in and by us. 

2. There is nothing more worthy of our complete love and trust other than the infinitely lovely and trustworthy. Only an infinitely lovely object can evoke and draw infinite love out of us.  

3. God is the source/cause of love, not us.

4. By design we receive and respond to love, not initiate it i.e. as God-like creatures (in his image) we are created for love and hard-wired to respond to love. When loved sacrificially, we respond with love.

It (a deed) also must end with God. That which is Spirit driven is also God-focused (targeted). God is not only the cause/source of love, He's also the end/object of it i.e. all that we do is done for the glory of God.

God is both the beginning/cause (the Alpha) and end (Omega) of all our actions/deeds. 

This means we are all about "showing him off" to others. To say it another way, if you are truly God-focused (all about advancing his honor/worth/glory) you are Spirit-driven.

But it doesn't stop here 

This is only where it starts. God is the cause and end of our actions, but to know this fully (for it to be perfected/completed), we must act on who he is for us by faith. Our faith must be perfected/ matured (just as Christ also learned obedience through His own struggles). 

To see, enter into and experience him as lovely and trustworthy in ever-increasing degrees, we must pursue him as such, i.e. by faith. Our (subjective) experience of him as a being that is loving and trustworthy (objectively) is contingent upon our actions rooted in faith, i.e. that he is loving and trustworthy. This goes beyond the proof of God's love already shown by his past sacrifice and involves our present engagement, ongoing experience, and participation in that love.

This doesn't mean he loves us more when we obey him, it means we enter more fully into that infinite, ²unobstructed love he has already totally and fully secured for us in Christ. A love He had for us long before we ever lifted a finger for his sake (Rom 5:8). 

True faith always results in acting upon what we believe. As James said, "...Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works..." There must be movement towards (attraction to and affection for) the object of love, otherwise, our knowledge of God is only in our heads and not in our hearts. 

If there is no attraction, affection, and resulting action, there is no real and true love, i.e. we really don't know his love for us. If we did, we would (and will) act accordingly. 

To truly know his love is to be moved to love him in return, i.e. moved to action-obedience. It is not possible to truly know we are loved by God and not be moved to love him back.

1Jn_4:8  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (i.e. it is impossible to know the God of love and not be moved to love) 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent (God's love for us moved him to act/send) his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

1Jn_4:19  We love because he first loved us (and only because he first loved us). 

1Jn_5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 

1Jn_5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Jas 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing...

Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?...

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. - James a disciple of Christ. 

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¹God, as a union of love between the Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit is the Source love, life, and all things. 

²Unobstructed only on His side of the relationship. There is nothing that hinders or stops His love for us as His child in Christ, but there is plenty on our side that prevents us from fully entering into and experiencing that love. 

For a discussion on the difference between being spirit driven vs works driven click here.

For a discussion on being loved VS experiencing his love click here.

For a discussion on becoming who we already are in Christ click here.

What is our eternal reward?

"...for eternity we are growing in the realization that we need God for everything, and yet in that neediness, we are fully and abundantly satisfied in all he provides." – Kyle Strobel, "Formed for the Glory of God" page 97

Note in the above quote the tension of continued growth in eternity while experiencing complete satisfaction at the same time. How does this occur? 

Strobel explains our understanding of our need for God throughout eternity is always increasing - after all, He is infinite, with no end or bottom and we are like Him with the capacity to experience him with ever increasing fullness. We will therefore never reach the height, width, fullness, or depth of His being. 

Yet, we are also always filled up to our present capacity at any given time. So there will never be a time we are not increasing in our experience of God while being full at the same time. God is not changing or getting bigger, our capacity and experience of Him is. 

But that process begins now. The degree to which we will experience him in eternity is determined by the extent of our faith in Him in this life. When we go into eternity, if our capacity to experience the fullness of God is only a thimble that will be the extent of our experience of Him upon entry. If a bowl, barrel, or an ocean we will experience Him accordingly. We will experience more of Him to the extent we have a larger capacity to experience Him.

Once we go into eternity our understanding of Him will continue to grow. The question then becomes, what capacity do you wish to enter eternity with… that of a thimble, a barrel or even an ocean? 

Either way, there will never be a dull moment throughout all eternity. Things will always be progressing and expanding. Hard to grasp but exciting to consider. 

It begins now...by faith

The realization of our need for God starts in this life at the beginning of our ¹new (spiritual) birth and increases in this life as our trust in God grows. Our experience of God also continues to progress  throughout eternity as our knowledge and communion with God grows.

What we should strive for in this life is greater faith so that we might have a greater capacity to see and experience more of God in eternity. God is our goal and reward i.e. Scripture seems to indicate our ability to enjoy and honor God in eternity will be in proportion to our faith in and faithfulness to Him now. Now we live by faith in ever-increasing degrees. Faith is the means by which we increase our capacity now to enjoy our greatest reward later i.e. God himself!

Whatever satisfaction in God we find now occurs by faith. Satisfaction will continue in the ²next life but firsthand - i e. by direct experience instead of by faith. Now our walk with him involves faith, hope, and love. In eternity faith and hope will no longer be necessary, only love. As we see God and the vastness of God's love more fully our love for him will continue to grow.

And because love will be experienced directly - face-to-face - it will also be full (according on our capacity), uninterrupted, and overflowing. We will be glorified. Our limitations - lack of faith - will no longer exist for we will be like Him and see him as he is in all his glory and love (not  quantitatively but qualitatively i.e. not in completeness but in substance). While faith and hope will cease and are no longer necessary, love remains. 

Mat 5:10  "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Mat 5:11  "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 
Mat 5:12  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (what causes their blessed state and makes their reward great is the testing of our faith by means of struggle and persecution). 

Luk 6:22  "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! 
Luk 6:23  Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. 

1Co 3:8  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor (labor inspired or driven by God's Spirit in us vs labor performed for the approval of others and by mere will power i.e. the labor of faith versus the labor of performance. For a further discussion on this click here).  

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¹the Spirit of God, given at our spiritual birth and now indwelling his children, is our guarantee of better things to come i.e. the fact that we have been given God's Spirit is our guarantee we will be with God in all his infinite glory one day. 

Why? His Spirit can not indwell an unclean vessel. If we have His Spirit we are and must be clean, not because of our efforts or faithfulness but because of Christ's. By this, we know we will be with Him in eternity.

²Not that we do not experience any evidence of this love by tangible provision of material needs now, but these are merely a drop in the bucket to aid us in advancing his purposes now and for our enjoyment i.e. we can not depend on these as proof of God's love. God promises in this world, you will have trouble. Material blessing will ebb and flow; God's love will not. The completed work of Christ, to restore us to the Father in the fullness of his love, is our primary proof of the greatness of that love. There is no greater evidence. 

This is a past historical event with ongoing and expanding benefits both now and throughout eternity. The face-to-face union with Jesus and the overflowing joy/bliss of that union is our primary reward and hope.

The necessity of faith in an infinite God

Belief is powerful, both positively and negatively. To believe and act upon the right things has infinite consequences for good but to believe the wrong things has infinite consequences for harm. 

Faith is necessary. By virtue of being created, we are ¹finite and therefore ²dependent beings. ²We must engage and operate by trust/faith to function properly. 

We must trust because we are finite and therefore dependent beings. God alone is infinite in love, wisdom, and power.

Who or what do we trust? We either place our trust in ³ourselves or in someone infinitely greater-wiser-more powerful than us.

When we trust in God and recognize He - not us - is greatest of all, we can accomplish amazing things. But if our faith is placed in the wrong thing(s), it can result in us doing incredibly harmful and destructive things. How harmful and destructive is determined by ⁴what we believe best brings life, how deeply we believe it, and the actions we take because of our belief.

Faith, coupled with the extent and amount of the gifts we have been given, determines how much good or harm can be done. The more highly gifted a person, the more they can be a means of great evil or great good.

Faith is powerful, and when coupled with the right object - i.e., the all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving God - it can release in and through us amazing results. To do amazing things requires amazing faith, but not faith in anything but in the right thing i.e. the all-powerful, loving, wise, and amazing God. The benefit, value, and effectiveness of our faith are determined by the object of it.

Truly amazing outcomes are the combination of great faith in an infinitely great object-Being.  The more we recognize the greatness of the object - God - the greater our faith-trust in that object grows, and the greater the impact we have for Him and His kingdom.

Great faith in the wrong thing doesn't work. Neither does no faith in the right thing.

For a further discussion on related topics, check out the following: 

The essence of God's life and therefore ours.

Why do the Father and Son love each other?

Why are relationships important?

Is God dependent?

Beatific vision - what is it?

What is life and love?

 

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Footnotes:

¹By finite, I mean we are not all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present. I am not saying we are not able to do far more than we presently do. Our capacity for great good and achievement is far greater than any of us realize, but only if we operate according our design i.e. when we are fully “plugged in” to our Creator who is the source of infinite life and love (which starts in this present life through Christ and is not fully participated in until we are with him face to face in eternity). We are, after all, like God or god-like if you will. And we are this way, so we might participate in all that God is, to the greatest extent possible, without actually being Him - we are not God (infinite in love, wisdom, power, and existence) and never will be. We are finite and wholly dependent on God to be all we are designed to be.

²In the physical realm, it is easy to illustrate our dependence. We must have air, food, water, and shelter to survive. In our present circumstances, we have come to take for granted that air, food, and water are not only helpful but vital and not harmful. We trust this is true because we have found it to be so. But if we went to an unfamiliar environment - such as an alien planet - we would be cautious because we wouldn't know whether the air, food, and water there are life-sustaining or not. If we don't take the time to find out, it could cost us our lives.

³Trust in ourselves includes trust in persons or things we think or hope we control, i.e. we are ultimately trusting in our ability to obtain from something or someone else what we need - and we may, for a short time, but not ultimately. God ultimately controls and sustains everything, and our experiencing the benefits of these is a gift from God, whether we recognize it or not. To not acknowledge this, however, has significantly dire consequences. This eventually results in us no longer having these good gifts or the provider of them, once we leave this world.

To trust in ourselves also means we think we are more able and wiser than God to take care of ourselves. Though we might not openly admit or even think this, our actions tell us we believe this. 

⁴This can be wealth, power, pleasure, or whatever we think (believe) will ultimately give us what we most need.

Having faith in God does not mean we can't believe in ourselves; it means we can't believe we are wiser than God. It is not just OK but good to recognize and acknowledge our abilities as long as we also recognize they are not and will never be greater than God, but in fact come to us because of God. Neither will they give us what we ultimately need and seek, no matter how great they are. 

rest

What does it mean to "rest" in God? Is there only one meaning?

I would suggest the Bible teaches there is an initial rest and an ongoing rest. 

After we have come into God's Kingdom and into our initial rest from His rightful judgment and condemnation, we are called to enter into and partake in an ongoing rest (contentment). 

The rest of this article will address ongoing rest. 

This occurs when we live according to two key truths.

1. We thank God for everything - especially the "bad" things - whether we understand why they are happening or not.

2. We faithfully (though not perfectly, necessarily) seek to do everything God calls us to do, whether we like it or not.

The 1st (i.e. hard circumstances) we do not control and must accept (receive) ¹passively, and the 2nd we do "control" and must pursue actively. 

Both require a choice we make by faith, and in this sense, both are active i.e. we choose - "control" - how we respond and how our circumstances affect us, not the circumstances. 

But neither can happen without God's strengthening/ empowering us (i.e. we can't do it in our own strength). But by His strength, which only comes through deeper trust in Him. 

We must come to a place where we fully recognize He is trustworthy in both what he allows (#1 above) and in what he calls us to (#2 above), and respond accordingly i.e. in and by faith. 

This is our choice alone and determines how these circumstances influence and shape us.

The theological underpinnings needed to live this way are infinitely deep, because they are grounded in our trust in the infinite love, power, faithfulness, care, and wisdom of God i.e. they must go as deep as God is vast, and as much as our faith allows us to embrace Him as being exactly who He is and claims to be.

To give assent to and ²faithfully carry or live these out, we must recognize (believe) God ³is always good, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving at all times and in all things. 

If you doubt these things about God concerning you and difficult circumstances, you will not be in a posture of humility and dependence needed to enter His rest. You will remain - abide if you will - in a state of agitation i.e. unrest, anxiety, or fear.

Resting in God is the essence of the now-popular saying, "God is good all the time, and all the time God is good."

Does this mean we will never struggle with believing these things?

Christ himself - the founder and perfector of our faith - wrestled with this in the garden of Gethsemane. He wrestled with both obedience (active) and acceptance (passive) of what God was about to allow him to go through. 

What settled it for him was one very simple decision, "...not my will but yours be done." He came to the place of complete surrender and trust. Once he did, his struggle was over. He was at peace i.e. resting in his trust in the Father, regardless of what He was about to and did go through.

This is why he was able to calmly say to his disciples, "See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer, is at hand.” Matt 26:45b-46. 

He stared pain straight in the face and, out of his total trust in His Father's love, wisdom, and power, was able to embrace the pain, the humbling, and the shame he was about to go through during His crucifixion. From this point forward, he set his eyes on the cross and never looked back. 

Christ was empowered to make this decision because he believed (trusted) his Father was all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and all-loving at that moment in that given circumstance. 

We, too, are called to this and can carry it out by the same strength we receive through this same trust in the Father. When we do, we too will calmly (peacefully) and deliberately move forward in life, no matter what is in front of us. 

For a discussion on how God uses evil for good click here.

For a further discussion on why God allows suffering and evil click here.

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¹Passively only in the sense that we don't necessarily have to or can do anything regarding challenging circumstances (of course, if we can, we should take action, but sometimes nothing we do can change things). However, we are never to be passive in terms of faith. Our faith must be actively and willfully engaged to enter and remain in an ongoing state of rest - peace. 

Both being thankful for challenges and engaging others in sacrificial love require faith (in the same way it did for Christ), so in this sense, everything involves active engagement and is not passive. 

²Some have suggested that if you break the word faithful down, it simply means full of faith i.e. faith full. To be faithful (obedient) no matter what we encounter, we must be full of faith.

³To acknowledge these things about God is not easy (it wasn't for Christ either), especially when staring into the face of great evil, struggle, and personal pain. 

What would you say is the biggest thing God is after in the lives of his children? 

Is it not our experiencing a closer relationship with Him?

and

The most important element of any relationship is trust

and

That which requires our greatest trust is suffering, pain, and challenges. We must embrace these and thank God for them. Without faith/trust this isn't possible.

How? The "good" God works in and through all the things we go through - for those of us who love Him (Rom 8:28) - is to make us like His Son (Rom 8:29). In doing so, we experience the same level of glorious and blissful communion with the Father that the Son did (and does). This is the ultimate good end God is working toward, for us, through our struggles. Not necessarily improved circumstances. This has nothing to do with improved circumstances (though it could and sometimes does lead to them, just not automatically). 

What better end is there than to experience God in all his love and glory to the greatest extent possible? 

And what better means is there to participate in this, other than having the same faith (and faithfulness) Christ had? 

And what faith do we have if not a tested faith? 

And what tests our faith most - and Christ's - if not pain and suffering?