I once knew a man whose wife died of cancer at a young age. I had the privilege of visiting him in upstate New York where he gave me the grand tour of his mansion. We stopped when we came to a large sitting room. There, above an elaborate marble fire place, hung a marvelous oil painting of a young woman. She was radiant.
“This is a portrait of my wife,” he told me. “I will never forgive God for taking her from me.”
A few years later this man died. At his funeral people spoke well of him. With the utmost sincerity and sympathy, I heard someone say, “Poor so-and-so, he never did get over the death of his wife.”
Compare this heart attitude to that of George Mueller who, when grappling with the death of his beloved wife Mary, found strength in the goodness of God.
“The last portion of scripture which I read to my precious wife was this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Now, if we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace, we are partakers of grace, and to all such he will give glory also. I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”—I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.” Online Source
Do you see the difference?
Psalms 2:3 describes a rebellious nation. “Let us break their chains, they say, and throw off their fetters.” This kind of heart rages and rails against an Omnipotent God because it doesn’t get what it wants. Job 15:25 describes this kind of person as distressed and anguished. Why? “because he shakes his fist at God and vaunts himself against the Almighty.” What a spiritually dangerous place to be.
If I’m honest with myself (and God) there are places in me that need to be conquered. How about you? May God deliver us from an apostate heart. We might be able to fool the world, but does not He who planted the eyes see everything?
“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1)
