Being a Christian? Frustrating!

O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him."

But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. O LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked (Jeremiah 20:7-13).

It can be frustrating to be a Christian. It can be frustrating to try and live a God-pleasing life when so many of your neighbors and co-workers, even your relatives, simply live life however they like. It can be frustrating to try and talk about Jesus and be shut down with a remark like, "It’s fine if you want to believe all that stuff, but don’t bother me with it." It can be frustrating to attend a worship service and see so many empty pews.

This kind of frustration is nothing new. During Elijah’s time as prophet, there were only 7,000 people in the nation of Israel who remained faithful to God. In the first few days after Jesus’ Ascension, there were only about 500 people who believed in Him as the risen Savior. And Noah and his family were the only eight people in the entire world that took God seriously in the years before the Great Flood. Certainly, all these followers of God shared the frustration of living a godly life in an ungodly world.

In the verses given above, the prophet Jeremiah bares his soul to God and to us. Jeremiah speaks words of frustration that we can relate to, as followers of God who feel out of place in a world that seems to be careening towards Hell. But Jeremiah also speaks of hope, and his words of hope are important for us to hear as well.

Jeremiah begins his prayer to God with bitterness: O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. Jeremiah is complaining about being God’s representative in the world. He’s complaining because people are making fun of him. Jeremiah was sent by God to warn Jerusalem and the surrounding territory that they had angered God so much that He was going to destroy the city and put an end to the Kingdom of Judea. But God never acts in haste—He sent Jeremiah in advance of His judgment, so that the people would have a chance to repent and turn back to God. However, as the years went by, people stopped taking Jeremiah’s warnings seriously—he came to be regarded like the person who stands on a street corner with a sign that says, "Repent, for the end is near."

This frustrated Jeremiah terribly. He knew that God was absolutely serious—doom and destruction were on their way, yet no one took the message seriously. Jeremiah offered a chance at life, and he was treated as a crackpot. Jeremiah was frustrated that the people were ignoring God’s warnings, and he was also frustrated that God had put him in the position of being ridiculed. Jeremiah went so far as to complain, O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. Essentially, Jeremiah was saying, "Lord, you didn’t let me know what I was in for, giving me this job. As a matter of fact, you didn’t really even give me a choice—You gave me Your message and told me to announce it, regardless of the consequences."

Of course, Jeremiah was wrong—God had told him to expect rejection as a messenger of Heaven. In the first chapter of Jeremiah, God had told him, "They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you." Jeremiah knew up front that being God’s representative would be a fight, but he hadn’t reckoned on just how much of a fight it would be.

We can relate to Jeremiah’s frustration. We have been raised in the shadow of the Ten Commandments, and it frustrates us to live with people who think nothing of ignoring worship, using Jesus’ name as a curse word, treating their parents with contempt, aborting their children, cheating on their taxes, or treating sexual union as a recreational activity. It frustrates us to have to choose between political candidates for public office, when one person might stand against abortion yet also support the death sentence. We try to cause the world to run according to God’s will, but people ignore us, out-vote us, or ridicule our beliefs as ‘old fashioned’. It would be tempting to complain that God didn’t let us know what we were in for by becoming Christians, but Jesus said plainly: "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

Jeremiah tried, unsuccessfully, to become a ‘closet Christian.’ Jeremiah thought that if he just kept his mouth shut, just kept his head down and lived his own life according to God’s will, he could be a child of God without the pain and aggravation. But God did not permit Jeremiah to live that way. Jeremiah said, But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

We cannot be ‘closet Christians’ any more than Jeremiah could, and for the same reason. Jeremiah was a prophet of God by the power of the Holy Spirit acting in him. When God called Jeremiah to service, He said, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth" (Jeremiah 1:9). Jesus said that when we are to speak of our faith, "do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit" (Mark 13:11). Like Jeremiah, we have the Holy Spirit acting in us. We received the Holy Spirit at our baptism, and John described the baptism instituted by Jesus this way: "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Matthew 3:11).

The Holy Spirit works in us like a fire. The Holy Spirit shows us the fire of God’s anger at our sins, and the promise of eternal suffering in fire if we persist in choosing the temporary pleasures of sin over the unending joys of being a child of God. When we see the need for a change in our lives, the fire of the Holy Spirit throws light into our world of darkness, a light that reveals Jesus Christ to us. By the Spirit’s light, we can see Jesus as He truly is—not just a wise Jewish teacher of 2,000 years ago, but the eternal Son of God, made visible to us by taking on human form. Jesus’ life was devoted to teaching us about God’s desire for all people to live forever in perfect love. Jesus suffered and died a criminal’s death on the cross in order to make that perfect life of love available to us. With all the fire of God’s anger spent on Jesus, we no longer need fear the wrath of the Almighty. For every commandment that we have broken, Jesus has suffered the punishment that we were due.

The light cast by the fire of the Holy Spirit also shows us the truth that Jesus really did return to life after dying for our sins, and continues to live unendingly in heaven at the side of His Father. Jesus lives because He is God, and our imperfections could not end His perfect love for us. Jesus lives so that we can come to Him, asking for forgiveness and for the gift of His perfect love. And when we ask Him for a new start, Jesus burns away the sins that weigh us down with the fire of the Holy Spirit, a refining fire that makes us pure and perfect in God’s sight.

But a fire cannot burn without being noticed. Fire gives off light and it gives off heat. Jeremiah found that he could not keep the fire of the Holy Spirit bottled up inside of him—he said his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. When you heat a container of water on a stove, pressure builds within it until the lid blows off—this is how Jeremiah felt. There was fire within him—joy in the light of God’s salvation, and a passion to share the joy of that hope with everyone around him. Jeremiah burned with the desire to share the gracious promises of God.

We cannot be ‘closet Christians’ either. The fire of the Holy Spirit fills us with light, and Jesus tells us to let our light shine before men (Matthew 5:16). With the fire of the Spirit within us, we cannot help but shine: we shine when we choose to worship on Sunday morning instead of sleeping in, or getting an early start on the day's work. We shine when we treat our parents with respect. We shine when we openly forgive others. We shine when we say 'no' to sex outside of marriage, when we say 'no' to abortion, when we say 'no' to divorce. We shine when we work hard for an honest wage. And when others ask us why we try to live our lives this way, we shine most of all when we explain that it is not us, but the Holy Spirit living within us, that shows us how desirable it is to live as a Christian.

And it is desirable. Jeremiah comes to the point where he can say with confidence, But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail…Sing to the LORD! Give praise to the LORD! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked. In spite of all the aggravations of being a representative of God, Jeremiah knew, by the power of the Holy Spirit burning within him, that God would protect him and safely bring him home to the eternal reward that awaits all the faithful—unending joy and peace in Heaven. We too are God’s representatives on the Earth. And the Holy Spirit also gives us the confidence to seek a godly life, because we read in the letter of James 1:12, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."