Even to the Point of ... Death?

Sometimes, life stinks. In your zeal and loyalty to God, you make the decision to be bold and stay committed to Him, no matter where that takes you. The popular belief is that your zeal, commitment, and faithfulness will take you down a path full of blessings – easy and comfortable. But the truth is, sometimes God calls us to follow Him – even to the point of death. In other words, we remain true to Him, no matter the consequence. Those consequences are often good. Following God and choosing His righteousness is, without a doubt, going to result in the best possible life a Christian can have in this fallen world. But more often than we care to admit, remaining faithful to God and living righteously results in negative consequences. Otherwise, why would John have written his words in Revelation: “…be faithful unto death …”? Sometimes being faithful to God means that, in this physical world, we lose. Maybe it means you lose your friends. Or it could mean you lose your fancy car. Maybe it means you lose your much too luxurious home or a portion of the clothes that, let’s be honest, you have too much of. It might mean you lose a portion of your savings because lost souls are a little bit more important than your own financial security. Or maybe God will require you to lose your job. Or, and this one is radical, what if following Him literally means losing your life? The fact is, following Christ to the cross doesn’t mean you will have every physical gain. It often means that you will lose something in the here in now. That’s why in his letter to the Philippians, Paul said “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

Accepting this truth and committing to follow Him no matter the loss is not easy for anyone. After all, in America we have become accustomed to enjoying our big fancy church buildings, hip fun church trips, trendy “Christian” messages, all while climbing the social ladder and enjoying our American dream. We are not accustomed to losing much of anything for the sake of Christ.

When you realize that His higher calling means you must lose something, you have two choices. You can commit to follow Him all the way or you can make the easier decision of following Him “except for fill in the blank.” (And in case you’re wondering, the latter choice means you’re actually not following Him. And if you’re not following Him, it’s not hard to guess who you are following.)

For those who commit to the higher calling, let me warn you. It won’t be easy. You see, you will commit to following Him no matter what. And when the rubber meets the road, with the Spirit’s help, you will boldly stand for Him. And when it results in losing, no matter what that may mean in your life, you will feel like you are on top of the world. You know that you lost something significant to you. But you know that God required it of you. And that knowledge will sustain you for a while. But in the time that follows, guess who is going to come knocking at your door? You guessed it. The Deceiver himself. He isn’t too crazy about this radical decision you’ve just made. And it bothers him even more that you feel good about it. So he is going to make your life a living Hell for the next few days.

In those days, you’ll hear his voice. It will sounds something like this:

“Isn’t this humiliating?”

“It wasn’t really worth it, was it?”

“Are you sure God really delivered you?”

“You’re just being self-righteous. Trying to make yourself a hero.”

“You did that for God. But where is He now?”

“God doesn’t really care what you did or lost on His behalf.”

“Are you sure He’s really there, anyway? Where is He now?”

“If God is really there, what kind of God is He? You lose all of this for Him and He doesn’t even deliver?”

The consequences of what you have lost and the significance of those losses will begin to play out and you will start to need God’s deliverance more than ever before. You’ll probably begin to feel pretty lonely. It will seem like God is so distant and Satan’s lies will begin to make a lot of sense in your head. You’ll feel yourself becoming angry with God. And Psalm 88 will become your battle cry:

“God, you’re my last chance of the day. I spend the night on my knees before you. Put me on your salvation agenda; take notes on the trouble I’m in.
I’ve had my fill of trouble; I’m camped on the edge of hell. I’m written off as a lost cause, one more statistic, a hopeless case. Abandoned as already dead, one more body in a stack of corpses, And not so much as a gravestone—I’m a black hole in oblivion. You’ve dropped me into a bottomless pit, sunk me in a pitch-black abyss. I’m battered senseless by your rage,
relentlessly pounded by your waves of anger.
You turned my friends against me,
made me horrible to them.
I’m caught in a maze and can’t find my way out,
blinded by tears of pain and frustration. I call to you, God; all day I call. I wring my hands, I plead for help. Are the dead a live audience for your miracles? Do ghosts ever join the choirs that praise you? Does your love make any difference in a graveyard? Is your faithful presence noticed in the corridors of hell? Are your marvelous wonders ever seen in the dark, your righteous ways noticed in the Land of No Memory? I’m standing my ground, God, shouting for help, at my prayers every morning, on my knees each daybreak.
Why, God, do you turn a deaf ear?
Why do you make yourself scarce?
For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting; I’ve taken the worst you can hand out, and I’ve had it.
Your wildfire anger has blazed through my life; I’m bleeding, black-and-blue.
You’ve attacked me fiercely from every side,
raining down blows till I’m nearly dead.
You made lover and neighbor alike dump me; the only friend I have left is Darkness.”

Psalm 88 (The Message)

Somehow, God expects us to blindly follow Him, no matter the loss. And what happens after that in the here in now might be good or it might be bad. But He has promised that when we follow Him even to death, the result in eternity is far better than anything we can possibly imagine. And no matter where things go in the here and now, we have to hold on to that one single promise. Because without the hope contained in that promise, it is impossible to go on following Him with such blind, bull-in-a-china-shop faith.