Staying Power

“Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ ”  John 6:67 (NKJV)

In our Bible class,   we’ve been  studying  about God’s love and  justice, and the  problem of evil gets woven into the conversation.  We have many questions that  elicit animated and productive  dialogue. As it happens  sometimes,  people  look at a world ruled by a loving God,  they’re told, but  see  the evil and injustice in it. They have questions  as a result and  place religion on the back seat in their lives. A much admired and  celebrated Holocaust survivor  has acknowledged his difficulty  continuing to believe in a God  who allowed the atrocities that destroyed millions of Jews. For many others like him, their   inability to deal with the prevalence of evil in the world has had a  dampening effect  on their belief system.

At one time some followers of Jesus listened to one of His discourses in which He presented  teachings difficult for them to understand. They decided they couldn’t  accept Jesus’  “hard sayings,” and  many of them turned back  and “walked with Him no more” (verse 66).  Their action prompted Jesus to ask the question in our focus text.  One can hear the  pathos in Christ’s voice.

Simon Peter is well known for  blurting out the wrong thing, but this time he was right on target. In answer to Jesus’ question, he said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (verse 68). How the heart of Jesus must have thrilled to hear  one of His disciples  talk like that.  Peter spoke  from  his heart.  He was a follower  because of his deep conviction that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

We, too, sometimes  ask  about spiritual  things that seem too hard for us to  understand or accept.  Some of us  get huffy if we don’t get  the answers that satisfy us, and some even decide not to walk with the Lord  anymore. What if  the tables were turned and God  asked us  some hard  questions as He did Job?  Like Job, we’d put a finger to  our lips  and  conclude that we don’t know as much as we thought we did.

It takes faith and commitment to continue with Jesus  when we’re faced with hard spiritual questions.  But if we have confessed Jesus and have chosen to walk with Him,  we  mustn’t be influenced to turn away from Him because, simply put,  Where could we go to  find  what satisfies our soul’s needs?  Let’s acknowledge with Peter that Jesus  has the words of eternal life.

Always,

Judith

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“Faith  is different from  proof;
the latter is human;
the former is  a gift from God.”
Blaise Pascal