Recently, I read a post from Streams in the Desert about walking through difficulties in relationships (see below). Well, the reality is, we all face relational challenges–even Jeremiah Johnson couldn’t escape to the bush to avoid them.
The question is, what sustains us through them?
God’s Word offers many answers; I want to focus on one: grace.
Navigating relationships and caring for the well-being of others ultimately requires something beyond us. We all agree that unbelievers offer care, and they do, to be sure. Still, the kind of care provided by a Christian, with the intent of reconciling sinners to a holy God through the preaching and living of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is something completely different. I might care for someone emotionally, physically, intellectually, and more, aiming to relieve temporary pain or maintain temporary peace; however, the Bible teaches that true peace is found in being reconciled to God. Peace with God through the gospel of Jesus Christ is the mission and aim of the Christian, and that is through sharing the gospel, for sure, but it’s also through living the gospel.
What do I mean?
When Christ told His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him, He was calling them to die to preference, comfort, and their own glory for His: to live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christian discipleship is a call to die that one might live for the glory of God and the service of others. This sort of dying is not glamorous and usually involves letting go of expectations, desires, and more. Painful. In other words, when expectations aren’t met, when outcomes aren’t in line with hopes, etc., it’s then that we’re beginning to understand the rocky road of the Christian pilgrim on their way to the Celestial City.
What do I mean practically?
Let’s take relationships. When I am relationally strained with a friend, spouse, child, co-worker, boss, pastor, and more, am I willing to seek understanding humbly and with care? Am I willing to own my part in the challenge, even if it’s 1%? Am I confident that God will work all things together for good, even if it means being misaligned or misunderstood? Am I more focused on being right than I am on being humble?
Or, on the other hand, am I willing to see beyond the challenge to the blessing that is to come by forgiving faults done to me and owning faults I have committed on others?
As we engage more and more in the path of forgiving and seeking forgiveness, I most surely believe we will experience the bold and sacrificial ministry expressed by the apostle Paul, when he said, “I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned” 2 Timothy 2:9.
How is this possible?
Grace.
Who receives grace?
The humble.
Who are the humble?
Those who have believed that Jesus Christ is Lord and who confess Him with their mouths (Rom. 10:9). Only the Christian. However, the Christian continually remains in need of grace, too.
Thus, the Christian alone has the promise of an alien power (grace) offered to them constantly (through humility) to live according to Christ’s command (love-John 13:34-35) even when it’s hard and it hurts.
The outcome?
Disciples of Christ who make disciples of Christ.
God help us…Amen.
Excerpt from Streams in the Desert:
“How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our trials we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, “Let him curse;… it may be… that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day. Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned into one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search” (-A. B. Simpson; Streams in the Desert: October 6).
— October 9, 2025