God's Gift of Frustration

Here is a critical truth I am learning the hard way:

Knowing what you are supposed to do and become does not give you the ability to do and become. But it does create great frustration.

I am also learning that this often confusing, and frequently painful, frustration is a gift from God.  It drives us to search for something different, something new, and to look for something that really works.  This frustration with our inability is designed to drive us to Him in search of His ability.  This is the very frustration the Law was designed to produce!

One of the main purposes of the Law was to cause people to run out of their own ability and run to Him.   When sin shows up in our lives we must admit we are not trusting in God’s grace.  God wants the law to force us into saying, “Lord, if this is what You require, I am not able do this by myself”.  This frustration with our inability was meant to drive us to the source of true ability; the true Grace of God.

The Law clearly defined what it would take to live righteously before God.  The Law pushes us in the direction of our only hope; true grace.  And the frustration the Law produces in honest seekers is what brings us to God’s goal for all life, the New Covenant in Jesus.

The promise of the New Covenant is transformation by the power of the indwelling Spirit.  Change is the evidence of true grace working in our lives.  The commands in the New Testament help diagnose where we are not interacting with true grace.  Our responsibility to confess where the Word tells us we are falling short, where we are sinning.  We must put our faith in the Spirit who lives within us; in our heart, mind and body.  Then we must interact with the Spirit as He changes us from the inside out.

This is both the hope and Good News of the true New Covenant!

​Mark

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