Articles
When Life Piles On
“Experience teaches us that often when people fall away from the faith it is not usually because of a single difficulty. It is more usual for such people to cite several related problems that together make them feel they have a burden they cannot continue to bear” (McClister, A Commentary on Hebrews, 31).
In other words, Satan is a master of piling on. See Job. It is in the absence of such multiple pressures that we can become overconfident and fail to show compassion for those who fall. When life is sailing along smoothly, we feel strong and tend to think we are impervious to sin.
But sometimes illness is followed by being fired, which is followed by financial stress, which is followed by a car wreck, which is followed by your girlfriend jilting your for your best friend … You get the picture.
Multiple blows of misfortune can be disorienting. Everything seems disconnected. Stability is replaced by uncertainty. Optimism drowns in negativity, which leads to bitterness, which saps our zeal and darkens our hope. In this frame of mind, it is easy to succumb to doubts about God’s goodness and even the genuineness of our own faith.
Suggestion #1: Prepare yourself for such times. Don’t assume in your present strength that you could never drift away or question God. Remember, Satan came to tempt Jesus only after He had been hammered by 40 days of fasting in the wilderness.
Suggestion #2: Cultivate relationships that you can rely on when weakness prowls. We are masters of hiding our struggles and doubts from others – even ourselves. Isolation gives Satan the upper hand. Don’t fight him alone. He is stronger than we.
