Distressed in spirit.

I wonder how many of us were called by the Lord when we were young. We started out full of ideas about what great things we were going to do for the Lord.

But then it appears He has deserted us. Thing are not working out for us exactly as we had imagine they would.

Where is the Lord? Why are we distressed in spirit.? Have we done something wrong? I know from what Jeremiah wrote that he had many such thoughts. Yet the promise to Jeremiah when he was a boy was that he would tear down and build up nations.

But look what he came to!

Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed! Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, "A child is born to you—a son!" (Jeremiah 20:14,15)

And Job also.

May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, " boy is born!" (Job 3:3)

There do come such times to the believer who is following on to know the Lord.

Reconciliation to God.

For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the LORD your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:7,8)

Before any of us can press past the experience of Pentecost into the fullness of God, there must come a time of judgment upon us. When we receive Christ we are reconciled to God legally. God esteems us to be righteous because we have obeyed him by placing our faith in the blood atonement made on the cross of Calvary.

We still may love the world, be filled with the lusts and passions of the flesh and soul, and be driven by our self-will and personal ambition. But God passes over us and our family in the hour of judgment because He sees the blood of His Son.

To this point we have been reconciled to God in a legal sense.

What shall we compare legal reconciliation to? Perhaps we could think of someone enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. Once a young man signs the required papers and takes the required oath, he legally is a marine. And yet he is not a marine because he has not had the training. He has not gone through basic or advanced training. He has been accepted in the Marine Corps and legally is a marine. But there is a lot more to being a marine than merely enlisting.

There is a lot more to being reconciled to God than merely being "accepted in the Beloved."

If we really have received the Lord, pray and read our Bible every day, and become involved in a local assembly of fervent Christians, the Holy Spirit begins to deal with us according to the calling that is on our life. We become reconciled to God in actuality, not just legally, as we gain the victory over each challenge set before us. A young man becomes a marine after he has successfully gone through basic and advanced training.

We can get just so far with the Lord, and then there will come this period of barrenness; of God's "anger," so to speak; of chastening and testing. It is a wilderness that we must go through before entering our land of promise.

To be continued.