The Gas Chamber

I was thinking today (yes, I do that a lot). I remembered seeing this video about the Marine Corps boot camp. During bootcamp, the recruits are put into a gas chamber. They have their gas masks on, but the whole point of the exercise is to take their mask off and say their name rank and serial number. My Dad is a former Marine and I remember asking him why they did that. He told me that they expose the recruits to the gas so that, in actual combat, they are not taken by surprise if they are attacked with gas. They've already experienced it and won't freak out. This way they know what it feels like and they can get their mask on without trouble.

I think God does the same with us. We face difficult trials in our lives because God is helping us to know what it will be like when we are in full on combat. He wants us to be prepared for attacks from the enemy. He doesn't want us to be taken by a surprise gas attack. When we are exposed to a little discomfort, we can prepare ourselves to combat the attacks from the enemy. We can recognize what is happening and do what it takes to combat without falling. That is the whole point of the exercise. To keep us in control and keep us from falling.

We can take two views of this. We can view our trials as too difficult and question why God would allow us discomfort. Or we can meet it head on, knowing that we are being prepared for combat.

Lord, prepare me for combat. Help me to know when the enemy is attacking and give me the strength to resist him so that he will flee.

REAL

I was listening to a favorite song recently. It is also one I used to listen to quite a bit a few years ago. It brought back some memories. Memories of when God felt so real in my life. Memories of when His return was so real to me that I was excited and anxious for it. Have you ever felt that way before? Have you ever felt like Jesus would be coming back tomorrow and you were excited about it?

I am amazed that God loves us so much and that He desires us to be as real to Him as He is to us. But, do we offer ourselves up like that? Do we open up our entire being for Him to examine? Or are we afraid of what He might see or say about who we have become?

God has been showing me a lot about Himself lately through my relationship with my wife. You see, there are days that I have this strong desire just to be close with her and God whispers, 'I want you to desire to be close with Me.'  There are days when I would rather stay home and just talk or be in the same room as my wife and God whispers, 'I want you to just be with Me too.' There are days when I want to be a better man for my wife and God whispers, 'I want you to be a better man for me.'

Most of us men have a hard time opening ourselves up to our spouses or anyone for that matter. I've been learning a lot about opening up these past couple of months. You see, God wants us to be transparent to Him not so that He can point out or 'fix' everything that falls short of His Glory, but that we can be real to Him as He is to us. He wants to love us for who we are and who He made us to be. He wants us to expose ourselves to Him and reveal all of our insecurities and imperfections. That is a scary thought to a lot of people. Why would we want anyone to see all of that!? We find it hard to open up to Him because we think judgement is the only response that He will have. But it is not really what He wants to do at all. Jesus said that He didn't come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. So why do we think that condemnation is the first thing we will get from God when we open up?

You see, I think we know there is a lot inside that we would like to change. A lot that we need to change. So, really, our fear of exposing ourselves to God is an adequate response. We know we are not worthy to be in His presence. We know that we've made plenty of mistakes to make Him weep. And so we stay away from the One who can fix all that. And how does He fix it?

When we open ourselves up to Him, He sees it all. He takes it all in. And He says, 'I love you.' And at that moment, when we've been so afraid to be real with God because of our impurities, He does not look on us in judgement. You see, Jesus is sitting right next to the Father. He leans over and says, 'I died for Him. I want You to love him. Father, will you love Him and hate Me instead?' God remembers the cross and says, 'Yes, I will love him. I've always loved him. And I want him.'

Exposing yourself to God can be a powerful moment in your life. Accepting that you cannot change anything inside yourself and letting God do the work in you will change your life. It is only at the revelation that God loves us even when He sees our imperfections that we can be changed.

I guess the question is: Do you want to be changed? Do you want to be real to God? Do you want Him to be real to you?

This is my prayer: that God would examine me and change whatever He needs to inside of me so that I can be real to Him as He has been to me. I hope you would pray the same.