I find that most of the tribulations I go through are inward (though I've had my share of outward ones, to be sure). But I'm talking about spiritual tribulations - wars between the flesh and spirit. Feelings of inadequacy. Wandering about in a spiritual funk. Feeling no spiritual fire or excitement burning at all.
Romans 7
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!I guess that's where true faith comes into play. Seeing how weak I am yet believing that I will be delivered moreso day by day from the desires of the flesh. I am sure that God wants us to feel no confidence about what we can do ourselves. The hard part is still having faith even while we're seeing our wretchedness.
It's tough, because I think the natural human reaction, when we see our weaknesses, is to run from God, or to block out what we see in ourselves. Ignore it, pretend it's not there. Remember what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they saw their nakedness - they hid and tried to cover it.
I think that could be one of the things that separates the ''called'' from the ''chosen.'' The ''chosen'' are brought to a point of facing their sinfulness face to face, and acknowledging it. Not just the open sinfulness like debauchery and drunkennes. That is the stuff that everyone sees, and of course, even many of the called repent of those things.
I'm talking about that deep, dark yucky stuff - hypocrisy, cowardliness, hatred for fellow man, etc. All the things that only we ourselves can see in there.
Just like the pharisees, the ''called'' have an idea that there are some nasty things lurking on the inside of their dish, but they just block it out and go on doing good works for the Lord (making fig leaf coverings for themselves) and never go through the spiritual tribulations that help us to grow and conform to Christ's image. God brings the chosen to a point of cleaning the inside of that dish.
So many people expect that "Great Tribulation" to involve microchips and dictators and so forth, and many people even believe they won't be here to experience it. But they totally miss the fact that we're to be going through an inward "great tribulation" throughout our walk.
I know how that emailer feels. There are seasons when I do feel lost and useless and doubtful about what I thought I knew. And there are seasons I go through when I don't even seem to care about anything spiritual. But then I get dragged back in and begin to learn new things. Just part of the tribulations we have to go through to enter the kingdom I guess.
I was thinking the other day about lifting weights. When the muscles are used to lift heavy weights, they are torn down and need time to rest and recuperate so they can rebuild. And each time they are torn down and rebuilt, they rebuild themselves a little bit bigger and stronger than they were before.
Maybe God made the muscles of the human body that way as a symbol of what our spiritual growth is like. I think about Jacob wrestling with God. I think that's what we have to do from time to time. He brings us to a point where we question things, question ourselves, question God, struggle, get frustrated, feel lost, see our weaknesses, etc.
But we have to go through these things, and He always (hopefully) brings us back to a point of coming back to Him for rest - but we have to wrestle with Him and probably endure some chastening first. We do our ''heavy lifting'' as we wrestle with God and search for answers. But then He brings us back to rest for a season. We have peace in our spirit, and during this time of rest, our "spiritual muscles" rebuild a little bit bigger and stronger than they were before.
Or maybe I'm just crazy. But Paul did say:
1 Timothy 4
7Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Paul does make somewhat of a comparison between physical training and training ourselves to be godly. All physical training, whether it's lifting weights or endurance training or just hard work - it's all very taxing at the time. But it benefits us and makes the body stronger and able to handle more and more each time we do it.
I could go on and on about this, but I guess that's enough for now.