Trusting God in all situations

Sometimes I wonder why Chambers matches up certain verses with his application. He reminds me of my Uncle Edward who took many rabbit trails when telling a story. Eventually he came back to where he started, yet it was easy to see that he had one of those connotative minds; everything he said reminded him of something else. Some might call that a scattered mind, but Edward always knew where he was going with his story.

Chambers might take a big leap from this verse to his comments, but this time I’m tracking with him and know exactly how he got there. (I have a scattered mind too.)

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. (John 16:32)

Chambers says that Jesus is not rebuking the disciples. He knows their faith was real, but “not at work in actual things.” Their own interests had distracted them from the truth they knew about Jesus.

I’ve been there, and so has every Christian that I know. We trust Jesus for eternal life, but we don’t trust Him in this problem or that situation. I’m certain God is sovereign over the universe, but not over today’s news headlines, or the weather, or Aunt Matilda’s terminal cancer. I trust Him to help me find a new job, but not in why we lost the last one. Our faith is there, but not for everything.

The process of growing in faith is usually something we can do nothing about unless God engineers our circumstances so that we are challenged to trust Him. Before that happens (and it does happen over and over again), trust is based on feelings and blessings. That is, I trusted God when the sun was shining and all was well, but when the storms of life hit me, I either panicked or tried to take matters into my own hands. It was only after God brought me through a storm I realize that I could trust Him for dark times too. My faith was being worked out in actual life, but I could only see that after the Lord “fixed” the problems.

This panic and self-effort is what Jesus means by “. . . and will leave Me alone.” Life goes sideways and I lose sight of Him, but have learned that this “darkness” is still governed by the sovereignty of God. He is teaching me to trust Him both in the sunshine and in the storms. He wants me to yield to Him in faith whether He is blessing me or it does not seem like it.

Chambers calls this wavering faith real, but not ‘permanent.’ I would likely replace that word with ‘trusting Him with my whole heart’ or ‘trusting Him no matter what’ but regardless of the words, it is part of the process of becoming like Jesus, which is His goal for my life.

I’ve also learned that God is never in a hurry. During all this business of being sanctified, I realize how much I’ve been interested in His blessings rather than in Him. I’ve also realized how often my spiritual disciplines focus on being ‘right with God’ so I will be joyful, rather than being right with Him because that gives Him joy.

Chambers quotes Jesus: “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” and says that spiritual grit is what I need. He is no doubt correct, yet I’m thinking that full trust and total commitment, no matter what, is also needed.

Compassion for loneliness and pain

My Internet browser gives a few headlines each morning. Today it linked to pictures of huge icicles in the city where my husband is working this week. As I looked at the pictures, a wave of loneliness washed over me. He has been flying to that place for 3-4 days a week, every week this year but one.

I am usually okay with being by myself, but after two months of this, it is getting stale. Then I read today’s devotional and the timing is perfect.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. (Psalm 103:13)

Spurgeon says that God has compassion on our pain and loneliness. If my heart is breaking over anything, including  my transgressions, my Father longs to heal me, just as a parent longs to ease the pain of their child. As the reading says, God has reasons for allowing any sort of suffering and will use it for my good and His glory. Yet in the process, He feels compassion for me.

I tend to rate low on the compassion scale, but notice changes as I experience God’s compassion, more easily weeping for those who hurt and feeling tenderness instead of annoyance at those who sin. Even so, some forms of suffering do not awaken sympathy in me, yet for God, any suffering in His family touches His heart.

Being alone is tolerable, yet for some, it is terrible. Yet Jesus knows that too. Before He was crucified, He said to His disciples,

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. (John 16:32)

The apostle Paul said the same thing as he awaited execution in Rome. He wrote how his enemies opposed him in and even his friends were not there with him, but he was not alone.

At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. (2 Timothy 4:16–17)

In what is called the Great Commission, Jesus told His disciples their life mission, but He also made a promise…

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20)

Christians are often without human companionship as we struggle with all kinds of sorrows. Jesus knew that we would feel abandoned at times and be lonely. Yet in His great compassion, He thought of a practical solution; regardless of our situation, none of His children are ever alone.

Who abandons who?

“God abandoned me.” 

I’ve said it. Everyone says it, or thinks it. Even Jesus said it. 

It never happens. My conclusion is based on the promises and fidelity of God. He said to Joshua,

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. (Joshua 1:5)

This promise is repeated in the New Testament (Hebrews 13:5) and given again by Jesus to His followers…

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

We might feel as if God has abandoned us, but because of His promises and His faithfulness, it is a false feeling. He said He will stick like glue and He does. 

But what about Jesus? When He was on the cross, He “cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46) 

Most think that because of the sin He bore, and because God cannot look at sin, the Father turned His back on Jesus. I do not believe that.

First of all, what Jesus said is a quote from the first part of Psalm 22, an oft repeated passage used by Jews in distress. Jesus had no strength to say it all, but His listeners knew it all. The psalmist felt abandoned but later affirmed that God had not hidden his face, but heard his cry.

Second, Jesus affirmed several times that God is always with Him.

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. (John 16:32)

And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. (John 8:29)

When I sin, I feel like God abandoned me, but the opposite is true. It is me who abandoned Him. This is just as Jesus predicted of His disciples, “And they all left him and fled.” (Mark 14:50) It happens. 

As God the man, Jesus never sinned, but on the cross He bore our sin. It seems to me that under that weight, He would feel just as we feel even though it was not His sin. He felt alone and abandoned. However, in this situation, no one actually abandoned anyone. Jesus was being perfectly obedient, even as our sin came between Him and His Father. His Father was keeping His Word and was “always with Him” as Jesus “always did the things that pleased Him.”

Unlike Jesus, I sometimes abandon the God I love. I am prone to wander. But He never leaves me or forsakes me either, just as He did not leave His dear Son. If He did, I would be forever lost, but He does not — and this is why I am forever His.