God uses calamity for good…

My husband is spiritually gifted as a leader and drawn to watch the daily news. I’m an ‘information gatherer’ yet have little desire to gather that information. The difference between us is intriguing. He is big picture and I am details. However, today’s readings from Charnock give me more interest in world events. This writer explains how God, in His wisdom, brings disasters for His purposes.

Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. (Daniel 9:14)

First, His timing is always perfect. The judgment on Sodom was suspended until Lot was safe. The early church was not invaded by violent persecutions until established in the faith. Paul was secured from Nero’s chains and the nets of his enemies until he had broke off the chain of the devil from many cities of the Gentiles.

God’s wisdom brings good out of evil using even sin and punishment. The church is more like heaven when most persecuted; the storms of trials have often cleansed it. Job’s integrity was clarified when the devil was permitted to afflict him. God outwits Satan when He uses his temptations to purify us. He brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness, makes poisons to become medicines. Death itself, the greatest punishment in this life, God has made to his people the gate of heaven, our entrance into immortality.

More examples: The Jews bind Paul and send him to Rome. His mouth is stopped in Judea, but opened in one of the greatest cities of the world, and his enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those chains where he was faithfully “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31)

His bonds also encouraged others: “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” (Philippians 1:14) How often has God used suffering which appears like judgment to gain favor to the gospel among sinners? How often has He multiplied the church by death and massacres and increased it by those means used to annihilate it?

God could use supernatural means, but often does not. For instance, when Jacob’s family was facing starvation in Canaan, He could have turned the stones of their country into bread, but He sends them to Egypt opening a way for their their removal from that place and revealing His saving power.

God could have struck Goliath with a thunderbolt from heaven when he blasphemed His name, but He used the natural strength of a stone and the motion of a sling by the arm of David to confront the giant and free Judea from this enemy.

God can use anything from the veering of the wind to change the results of a naval battle or even the accidental stumbling of a horse to fling a leader in battle. The wisdom of God uses the natural order to work out His intended preservation of His people.

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

Charnock changed my interest in the news by saying “troubles and wars among a people are many times not destroying, but medicinal” and intended to cure people of the sin that is going to destroy them, sin often contracted during a long term of peace. This is not obvious, yet it makes sense and fits with God’s goodness.

PRAY: Jesus, I now better understand how and why the world is in such a mess. It seems to me that You are saying “You want to run your own lives? Let’s see how that works.” Yet this goes farther. You allow the turmoil to correct, or to bring out good, that many people will not experience the wrath yet to come. May Your will be done.

 

Praise rather than protest...

 

Yesterday’s reminders about being thankful and that being thankful is the will of God, also reminded me of how easily I complain. Today’s reading reminds me again, that even the smallest dissatisfaction is finding fault with the Lord. He is sovereign and nothing escapes His notice or is out of His control. How dare I criticize the God I profess to love.

Examples: My toe hurts. It is too windy. The sun is too bright. The day is filled with interruptions. My cousin talks too much. I can’t find shoes to fit my narrow heels. The pizza is too salty.

Need I go on? Do these get excused because they are not about the ‘big’ things like corruption in the market place, drunk drivers, the seductive power of false teachers, or the floods and fires that ruin lives? Do I rate all these things like some people rate sin and make some excusable and others so disgusting that they are almost unmentionable and candidates for a self-righteous declaration such as, “At least I don’t do that”?

Every complaint I make is a verbal insult to God, a declaration that He is not doing His job the way I think He should. It isn’t that God needs me to affirm Him or His wisdom — He knows what He is doing and knows it is perfect. The problem is with me. I can easily talk and act like a spoiled child who wants all things done to suit her likes and dislikes.

What is the cure for such foolishness? I have written in a prayer request notebook that I cannot sin and praise God at the same time. Today’s reading affirms that by pointing out how many times the Bible tells readers to praise and thank Him. The word “praise” is used more than 230 times. Worship is used nearly 200 times, “thanks” and its variations about 130 times. Complain and grumble appear only 40-50 times and is criticized or expressed negatively in every one of those verses.

God saves His people from our enemies. Imagine complaining about that! He heals and blesses us. Do I not thank Him and only complain for more? How ignorant and wrong to think my wants are more important than His will or His wisdom.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! (Psalm 135:3)

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:3)

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power. (Psalm 21:13)

At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules. (Psalm 119:62)

God is to be praised for what He does and for who He is. He is Lord of all, loves all, is righteous and good, and sovereign. He also says: “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

This leaves me with nothing to criticize. He knows what He is doing, even if to me it doesn’t seem right or I’ve no clue why some things happen. My role is to trust Him and declare that trust in praise.

PRAY: Today is a new day. It will be filled with all sorts of things. Will my reactions to each one be trust, faith, praise? Or will I doubt and complain? I know that Your Holy Spirit does not produce those sinful reactions. I also know how much I need to be filled with Your Spirit so that I am not sinning by grumbling or even thinking that You do not know what You are doing. Keep me in Your will — thankful and trusting You with all things, including all calamities —along with the well-beings that seem so much easier to praise.

I Spy God…

Wildfires aside, we still love to drive through the mountains only a few hours from our home. Besides looking up at the grandeur of the peaks accented by incredible forests and color everywhere, a detail never fails to amaze me. How do trees grow out of rocks? Think of the power of a seed, and most of them do not even look like seeds, yet they sprout and roots reach through to nourishment and the trees grow, some of them even splitting the rocks apart.

Today’s reading likens the power of Christ in His people to that seed. It is a power that works in our weakness, meaning without Him we are unable to do the will of God. Not only that, it is a power that rules over all else, even those events and circumstances that threaten to overcome all goodness and the desires of our hearts.

I witnessed this power at our family reunion. People who seldom talk chatted with ease. Those who never met the others prior to this gathering were amazed by the love shown to them as were the others amazed by their interest in everything new. So many God-things happened that I felt like a bystander watching Him work — the same sort of feeling I get looking at a tree sprouting up through the rocks of an overwhelming mountain. God, how do You do that?

One thing I’m noticing in myself and in others is that we need to have a fuller concept of who God is and what He can do. If my ideas about God are faulty or inadequate, I don’t even notice His power at work.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

For nothing will be impossible with God. (Luke 1:37)

I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. (Job 42:2)

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. (Psalm 147:5)

These and other verses say it, but I also need to say it, to ask God to open my eyes to His wonders. This is needed because it is not part of my sinful nature to want this or see it.

When one granddaughter was about three, we went for a walk. I pointed to various things such as the sky, the grass, the flowers and said, “God made this for us to enjoy.” Finally I added, “And God made you too.” At that, she put her little hands on her little hips and declared, “No he didn’t.”

This is the built-in attitude of sin — a refusal to acknowledge God. I need to fight it. I need to look at the trees and think of them waving praise to God. I need to see His handiwork in creation and His mighty work to change lives in His people. Even those who do not believe will somehow display that they are made in His image, and even those who disagree and try to change what they are, I need to be thankful that only God can change lives.

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah 13:23)

If we cannot do good without Him, I can be certain that even the evil anyone may do is under His control and supervision. I may not understand why or what God is doing or allowing, but I can be certain that He is at work: “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

PRAY: Jesus, seeing Your hand in all of life has changed my life. Fear gives way to confidence for I know that You know what You are doing. Wars and tragedies, crime and human evil seem to win, but  You are not finished yet. The Bible is clear that at the end of it all, You are the winner, the One who is able to sprout seeds in a rock and make sense of a world that seems out of control. Keep my eyes on You.

Tested faith?

 

 

READ Job:1-4

Probably the most asked yet unanswered question is about suffering. If God is good, why does it happen? How can God be sovereign over the affairs of man and allow suffering to anyone, especially His people? How can the Lord say, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things” (Isaiah 45:7) yet also say, “Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker; he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 17:5)?

When confronted with such questions, my best and most honest answer is that I don’t have a clue. Yet that is not true. The clues for some suffering are in the book of Job where a man who loved and served God was prosperous and doing well. Then, without warning or being told why, his life fell apart. He lost everything: his wealth, his children, his health. His wife told him to curse God and die.

If that were the only thing revealed in his story, there would be no answers. Would I conclude, as his ‘friends’ did, that God must be punishing Job for some hidden and unconfessed sin? But there is more to the story. The first two chapters tell how Satan came to God and challenged Him. He basically said that if Job did not have such a good life, he would never put his faith in God.

Then Satan said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9–11)

God replied, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” (Job 1:12) and great calamities began in the life of this faithful servant of God.

Much to Satan’s annoyance, “Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.” (Job 1:22) So the devil came back with the accusation that Job would curse God if he lost his health. God permitted that test also, but “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 2:10)

God has blessed us with health and prosperity, a nice home and a beloved family. I can actually imagine myself in Job’s place having it all taken away. Would this story be a comfort? Perhaps I would react as Job initially did and wish I’d never been born. Perhaps our Christian friends and other friends and neighbors would suggest that we must have done something wrong to deserve this. Would I be upset if God remained silent? And would God need to remind me that I know almost zilch about His doings and His purposes? Would He need to tell me of His great power and humble me as He did with Job?

I don’t have answers for the hypothetical. I just know that this story tells me that I don’t know very much. God is my Father, Jesus is my Savior and Friend, and the Holy Spirit is my guide through life. I’ve read the Bible dozens of times, study it daily, pray often, and am still in the dark about much of what God is doing. Why the wars? Why the sicknesses? Why are His people being slaughtered for their faith in many places in the world? Why do children get cancer? Why does He allow injustice and greed? Why does God not do only good and leave out the calamity part?

Perhaps the greater mystery is that despite all those questions, I know in my heart that He is holy, righteous, loving, and merciful. I know that He sent Jesus to die for me so I can live forever with Him. I also know that I trust Him and that whatever He allows to happen in my life is not to harm me but give me hope. This defines the faith that comes from Him as a gift of His grace. This faith hangs in there because it is from God and not my doing. If it were humanly possible, Job could not have held on through his first set of losses, never mind after losing everything. For faith such as this, I can only praise the Lord!