What do we really need?

In last night’s group Bible study, the prayer requests brought sadness to our hearts. One friend just recovered from a fall with many broken bones only to be told her cancer had returned — and that her husband has stage four cancer. Three families have lost a wife, mom, sister, or parent. Relatives are in hospital with serious ailments. New immigrants struggle to find jobs and are needy. One couple is facing several challenges in serving Christ. Three young people in our church struggle with autism.

I felt odd to be the only one in our group with no physical problems. Not only that, the speaker in a video we watched said, “God brings trials into our lives for a purpose and when that purpose is accomplished, He removes the trial.” Most of the praying involved requests to remove the trials.

One topic of discussion involved reasons why people do not want to hear the gospel. We agreed that the main human goal is to be comfortable, and yet was that not our focus in praying for those whose lives are filled with trials? I face some, yet God keeps blessing me with verses like this:

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:40)

He has shown me that my trials are to teach me that He is God and I am not. If I cannot see what He is doing in the trial, He at least gives me a mysterious ability to accept it as His will and trust Him to use it for my good:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

My friends around the table verbally agree, yet what they really want is the trial to  go away and for all those on our list of needy people to be happy and comfortable. For me, being happy and comfortable in the trials made me feel almost like survivor’s guilt. At the same time, I wanted everyone to deeply trust the Lord to the point that their trial was a source of peace rather than something to get rid of.

Many times Jesus did things for the troubled. He made water into wine when the wine ran out at a wedding. He raised to life the son of a grieving mother. He forgive the sin of an accused woman. He healed infirmities and gave sight to the blind… all this to show that He was doing the will of God. That is, God is not a meanie, yet for Him my holiness is more important than my comfort. He did make it a priority:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:31–33)

As His child, I’m to want what He wants. The Scriptures make it clear that being like Jesus is His goal for me and since I’m not like Jesus in so many ways, I’m to be willing to accept whatever He uses to accomplish that goal.

So why then did Jesus heal and help the needy like He did then, and yet now uses suffering for that purpose rather than remove it? Jesus did say that “the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.” (John 5:36) In that time, He healed to show He was sent by God. Now, He uses the trials to build faith and to give us opportunity to show others that He makes it possible for His followers to be transformed by hardship.

God designed salvation’s plan. He is the only one who can open eyes to see the mysteries of Christ in it, to help us realize that “we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear.” (Luke 1:74) and to also know that even thought His righteousness gives us a title to heaven; there must be a holiness to make us fit for heaven.

PRAY: Jesus, only You know why some suffer as they do, and what You want to accomplish in their lives. I don’t. I don’t always understand Your purposes for my own trials. This issue is not asking You to remove them, but to use them for Your purposes, and to totally trust You with the trials You bring into my life and the lives of others.

ALL things serve God’s purposes

 

Last week I got a call from someone who wanted to talk about the injustice and evil in the world. By the end of our conversation, he was saying that God uses all that evil for His purposes, even to bring many to salvation. He acknowledged God's sovereignty, and His wisdom in what He does.

Today’s reading says the same thing in a different way, beginning with these verses:

By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. (Psalm 119:91)

So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, (1 Corinthians 3:21–22)

The word ALL is key. It refers to all things, not a few, not just on Sundays, not just the good things or godly people, but all things are God’s servants, made to work together to accomplish His purposes. This is difficult for us because we believe in His love and goodness. How can He govern evil? Yet if He does not, then we cannot say He is sovereign.

I don’t understand it, nor can anyone else. The devotional writer says the Lord does not inaugurate evil, yet His power makes it His “servant” to bring blessing to His people as it transforms us into the image of His Son:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

The psalmist speaks of the enemies of the gospel and their treatment of God’s people, yet also how God can use them to bring Him glory:

The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. (Psalm 119:85) yet…

Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt. (Psalm 76:10)

Thoughts like this give me peace even in watching all the bad news. The whole world seems to be lost in evil yet at the same time God is using it. Some are standing against evil because they are seeing the results. For instance, government officials are ruling that schools must display God’s commands. This week, the gospel was presented to thousands at the beginning of a world class soccer game. Several have said we would not know the power of God without the presence of evil and seeing Him use it. It blesses us when evil is confronted, at least the evil of others...

Yesterday’s sermon at our church was about the way our heavenly Father disciplines us for our good. He often uses hardship to help us see the importance of obeying Him. His methods can even seem like punishment, yet His incredible love put our punishment on His Son. Jesus needed no training in righteousness, but I do, and God uses all things for that training, even the evil in the world to combat the sin in me. At the same time He assures me that this is not His anger at sin but His great love for me and desire for my good.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

PRAY: Jesus, what can I say to this? Your great love uses evil for Your purposes. You use it to show a sin-sick world how much we need You. You use it for my good (not always for my comfort) so that I might experience the greatest good anyone could have — to become more like You, the perfect man. While You do not ask me to embrace evil, this amazing truth invites me to praise You for such amazing grace and power, and erases my fears when troubles come. Yes, You are an amazing God!

What about calamity?

 

 

My hubby was at a Christian men’s gathering and said something about God afflicting people to get their attention. One man responded with, “God would never do that!”

But God did do that. The first appearance of this word is in the first book of the Bible. Abraham and his wife went to Egypt because of a famine in their land. Since Sarah was so beautiful, he feared she’d be taken by an Egyptian and he would be killed so he told her to say she was his sister. She was taken into Pharaoh’s house and this leader treated Abraham well because of her . . .

Genesis 12:17. But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife.

Isaiah 45:7 also says: “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

I know not to speculate but this story makes me wonder of our current pandemic is related to a current situation with God’s people, that as we live among those who do not know God we have fears for our own lives instead of trusting Him to take care of us? Being bold in a pagan land can lead to violent persecution and death. Consider daily news from places like Afghanistan and parts of Africa.

Today’s word is AFFLICTION, not the general hard stuff of life but the trials sent by God to humble His children and to bring us to repentance and contrition so we will trust Him instead of ourselves. The OT has several words for this. Some are translated affliction, particularly plague. Others are crush, or oppress or strike, hit, wound. Still others are more positive such as the challenges of fasting and prayer.

Leviticus 23:27. “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord.

Psalm 35:13. But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.

The psalmist is thankful for affliction, testifying that it leads to obedience. This is also noted in the NT.

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word . . . . It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes . . . . I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me” (Psalm 119:67;71;75).

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9–10).

While we tend to blame Satan for suffering, I need to see that God sometimes (not always) uses it to correct me. I must also remember that Jesus was afflicted by God. The prophet foretold what and why:

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted . . . . He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.  . . . Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” (Isaiah 53:4; 7; 10).

This tells me that affliction can have a far greater purpose than just making me miserable. It can be used by God for reasons I may not realize at the time. Unlike Jesus, I am not always given that awareness.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Deeply considering Jesus changes my understanding of suffering. I do not welcome it, yet Jesus did say that when persecuted (a similar NT word to affliction meaning put into a narrow place of trouble, affliction or distress), I should rejoice:

Matthew 5:10–12. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

James 1:2–4. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

The bottom line is God’s sovereignty. He can prevent affliction as well as make it happen. Do I trust Him to the point of being willing to accept the tough stuff and use it in His plan as He sees fit? If not, I need to keep gazing into His glory and realizing this is an incredible and true reality.