The Reason Why So Many Christians Are Miserable

Hebrews 12:1-2, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I love that phrase... LOOKING UNTO JESUS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH!!! That one statement can change your life dear friend. What a great truth! 

I receive many emails from my web visitors. Quite a few of them share their personal, family, job, social, financial, sin, church and life's problems with me. I am a loving and kind person, who is willing to listen and I do care, so hurting people come to me. I welcome them all in Jesus' name! But one thing I have noticed over the years, why many Christians are so miserable, is that they are focusing on all the wrong things in life!

One man is frustrated that an acquaintance of his is financial secure, who inherited a big trust fund from his parents, and doesn't have to worry about money or work. So my web visitor confided in me that he is frustrated about his financial situation. It didn't take me five seconds to know what is wrong—he is not looking unto Jesus! Instead, he is dwelling on material things. Who cares if his friend is a billionaire! It ought not matter. 1st Timothy 6:6-8, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” I have known many people like this throughout my lifetime, including myself. I have to be careful not to look at my neck pain, loneliness and frustrations; but rather, LOOK TO JESUS! That is how I have keep going over the years.

We really are what we think about. Philippians 4:8-9, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.” If you want the God of peace to be with you, then you MUST live a Scripture-centered life of obedience to the Lord.

Another Christian woman wrote to me, upset at her adult Christian daughter for avoiding her. The daughter sent her mother a sermon that says to avoid people who cause strife in your life, which offended the mother. The mother does cause strife! I don't blame the daughter for avoiding her mother. I advised the mother to humble herself to her daughter, and apologize for not being a better mother when her daughter was growing up. But in her pride, instead of humbling herself, she told her daughter that she refused to associate with her anymore. Her problem is that she is not looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of her faith. She is looking at her daughter instead, upset that she can't have her way. Folks, the sooner that you learn to just LOOK TO JESUS all the time, you'll never truly find the peace of God in this life. 

I love something that Pastor John K. Jenkins Sr. said: “Just love the hell out of people!”

It doesn't matter to me if everyone I know is a millionaire, and I am poor. It doesn't matter if all my neighbours have wives, and I don't. It doesn't matter if the biggest Baptist church on Guam kicked me out and refuses to allow me to come back to attend services. It doesn't matter if the whole world is having fun and I am not. I AM LOOKING UNTO JESUS!!! Jesus is all I need. Folks, when you hit rock bottom remember Jesus is the Rock at the bottom. Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” If you don't keep your focus on Jesus in life, you're not going to make it! You'll become bitter, angry, resentful, even disillusioned or suicidal. 

I have known at least five Christians in my life who commit suicide at low points in their life, because they took their eyes off of Jesus. One man was my best friend during childhood. He stopped going to church, started drinking booze, hung around the wrong crowd, and the last time I saw him he said he had abandoned his Christian faith for communism. At age 22 he shot himself in the head with his father's shotgun. I wept much at his funeral. He wasn't looking unto Jesus!

Another Christian man in his late 20's commit suicide when his wife left him, and he couldn't find her. I remember he came onto our church bus one Sunday night, frantic, asking anyone if they had seen his wife. Shortly thereafter in the weeks to follow, we had learned that he took his own life in discouragement and loneliness. Kindly said, he wasn't looking unto Jesus! There, but for the grace of God, go I. Dear friend, if you stay fixated on the Lamb of God, the friend that sticketh closer than a brother, you can get through anything life brings your way. The Apostle Paul kept His eyes on Jesus! ...

2nd Corinthians 1:8-10, “For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;”

The Apostle Paul said it was their faith in God that saw them through dire circumstances in Asia. Jesus said in Mark 11:22b, “Have faith in God.” If you have faith you can make it! Faith is like film, it develops in the dark. Unshakable faith comes from having our faith shaken! So often it is not our actions that destroy us, but our reactions to life's situations. God wants every believer to adopt the following Scriptural mindset toward life's troubles, trials and tribulations, viewing them as tests which ultimately strengthen our faith in God:

1st Peter 1:7-9, “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.”

Carefully notice that the entire basis for our faith being shaken (tested) is Jesus Christ. We have never visibly seen the Lord Jesus Christ, yet we love and trust Him! In 2nd Corinthians 1:8-10 the Apostle Paul said it was their faith in God, Who raised up Jesus from the dead, that saw them through! Boy I love that! This is how we ought to approach our burdens, problems, afflictions, losses, heartaches and all the miseries that this life can throw at us—as being necessary for our spiritual growth, to conform us into Christ's glorious image (Romans 8:28-29). James 1:2-4, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Many Christians complain about their afflictions, some becoming bitter and angry over their less than ideal circumstances. But the inspired Word of God teaches us to count it all joy, knowing that unshakable faith comes from having our faith shaken!

Another Christian man I knew (in his late 30's) commit suicide when his fiancée abandoned him for another man, whom she married; and he was also deep in financial debt as well. Kindly said, he wasn't looking unto Jesus! Folks, there is nothing in this world that ought to shake our faith so much that it warrants taking our own life. As long as Jesus is alive, we are on the winning side through faith in Him! 1st John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” I know the overwhelming emotional trauma and inexplicable pain of being betrayed, abandoned and divorced by a disgruntled spouse. She wasn't looking unto Jesus, but I was, which is why I focused on soulwinning during the painful ordeal. By the grace of God, two months after my former wife abandoned me in March of 2006 I started my soulwinning.info website ministry in May, overcoming even with good (Romans 12:21). My Savior lives!!!

One month later in June I received a summons to divorce court, and the marriage was over. That sin is on her, not me. I can live with that, because the situation was all out of my hands. I have it in writing legally that she refused to reconcile with me, as a testimony before God and man. I was looking unto Jesus then, and I am still looking unto Jesus now! I kindly agree with John Wesley (1703-1791), who eloquently said when asked about his wife divorcing him: “I did not dismiss her. I did not abandon her. I will not recall her!” Good riddance to strife!

Jesus Christ alone is the Author and Finisher of my faith! It matters not what others have more than I do, or what I don't have. Praise God, my name is written in Heaven! Luke 10:20, “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” I am a redeemed child of the King! Whew that's worth shouting about. Hey lost and lying world, I have something great to rejoice about—my faith in Jesus Christ! Hey all you miserable Christians who bellyache about your problems, I have great news for you—JESUS CHRIST THE RIHTEOUS ONE IS RISEN!!!

Hey all you disgruntled Christian people, I have awesome news for you from 1st John 4:4, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” Throughout my life I have been persecuted for my Christian faith in the secular workplace (2nd Timothy 3:12). I was a conservative Christian working in Sodom and Gomorrah (which is typical of the American secular workplace today). With the new LGBTQ laws protecting homosexuals, Christians are working in ungodly cesspools of iniquity. 

To help me cope with the adverse conditions at work, I wrote the following helpful Scripture on my toolbox. John 16:22, “ And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” I love that Bible verse! As God's children we have sorrow in this sin-cursed world. Ah, but our sorrow is only temporal. More times than I can remember throughout my life, people have taken away my joy, but the Lord promises that in the future it will never happen again. We won't be persecuted for our faith in eternity, we will be rewarded and honored for it. We won't have to encourage ourselves anymore, because when we see Jesus He will make all things good.

So remember dear friend—Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Please don't let the cares, riches and pleasures of this life distract you from soulwinning (Luke 8:14-15). Please don't let the tribulations, trials, losses, afflictions, permanent burdens and heartaches of this life rob you of the joy of serving God today. So oftentimes people allow worries over the future, and bitterness over the past, rob us of the joy of serving God today! LOOKING UNTO JESUS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR FAITH!!! That is the key to peace in life dear friend.

Look To Jesus In Your Miseries

I am a miserable person in many ways. I am lonely since my former wife abandoned me in 2006. Consequently I lost my home, my confidence in life, my retirement, my pets, most of my possessions, et cetera. Do you know what you get when you play a country song backwards? You get your wife back, your home back, your truck back, your dog back...lol. I have stayed focused on Jesus through the many painful years, otherwise my website ministry wouldn't be here. I am just a redeemed sinner. God knows my heart. I have always desired only to please God by helping others for Jesus Christ.

I am afflicted in constant toothache-like neck pain. I have burning nerves throughout my body. I am quite used to it, and I am generally healthy, but these afflictions are a burden. I cannot escape my body, so I have to cope with the burning sensation. As I type, my neck burns with pain and stiffness, my whole body feels hot (nerve burning), my arms and hands feel puffed up with air, and the right side of my body feels half asleep. It is medically called stenosis and radiculitis. What happened? I got hit by a church bus in 1992 and fell at work in 2005. 

Albeit, I am very thankful to God. I see people stuck in wheelchairs. I see children with cancer. I see people without faces, missing their arms and legs, blind, deaf and mute. I am so abundantly blessed by God and have no complaints. I simply have my own afflictions, as we all do. I can choose to focus on my burdens and become bitter and a complainer, or I can LOOK TO JESUS in my afflictions and be happy in the Lord.