Often you
hear people say, “If God is a God of
love, why does He allow such suffering in the world?
The short
answer is that man has chosen to go his own way without God.
Man is
suffering the consequences of his own choices, yet in his un-regenerated mind,
he still blames God for the mistakes he himself has made.
My way.
Man wants
to be independent from God; he wants to be master of his own destiny, and he
wants to do what he wants, when he wants, and he wants to do it his own way.
The late
Frank Sinatra sang the famous song “My way.” If one listens carefully to the
words, one cannot help but notice the typical attitude of man towards God and
His divine plan for mankind. Man says boldly and proudly, “I’ll do it my way.”
It is
precisely this attitude that brought many horrors upon God’s creation.
Freedom
and control.
Freedom
and control are opposites. If I give you freedom, I lose control over you,
because you have taken control of yourself. Man has a free will, and he can
choose freely that which he wants in life. When man chooses his own way, he
takes control away from God and assumes control for himself.
In fact
God, has to restrain Himself from actively preventing the consequences of man’s
bad choices.
If man
has taken control for himself, and is doing things “my way,” why does he blame
God for the world’s sickness, poverty, depravity, disease and death?
If God
were brought before a Human Rights Court, and the evidence that man has against
God be submitted, God would be acquitted on all counts.
There is
a certain irony in that whilst the world blames God for its woes, the Church
blames Satan. Like our forefather Adam, we are still shifting the blame, and
not taking responsibility for ourselves.
Job
Suffering
is such an integral part of human condition there is an entire book in the
Bible all about suffering. Job, the oldest Book in the Bible is about a man
that lost it all.
The
difference with Job and us I would suspect is that Job Processed his suffering
with prayer.
Yes he
moaned and grumbled; cursed the day that he was born, but nevertheless he
prayed regardless.
Suffering
brings out the worst in us. All those areas that we thought were under control
begin to surface when the heat is on. Character flaws surface and are amplified
in times of stress and distress.
God wants
to deal with these flaws. We may not even know that they are there, but God in
His love for us wants to refine us and polish us unto righteousness and
holiness.
When you
are at a low and things are just too much, what do you do?
I know
what I did. I am ashamed to tell you this but I went back to my old ways.
My
argument was that if God is not hearing I might as well do as I want to. He
does not care anymore, He does not answer my prayers, and so I will rebel and
go back to my vomit.
I quietly
and rebelliously slipped back into the old life; perhaps thinking that I was
somehow “punishing” God because He was not responding to my needs.
Of course
the enemy provided many reasons to justify my rebellion.
But Job?
No. He certainly complained bitterly, but he persevered till the end and
processed his suffering with prayer.
In my own
case, I stopped praying. If God was not going to talk to me, than I too would
be silent. Like a petulant child I sulked and murmured against God for my
situation.
The end
result….I had to go around that same mountain again and again till I learned to
process my affliction with prayer and not with pouting.
The
Baptism of suffering.
There is
of course another reason that there is suffering among God’s children. It is
the suffering that we as believers must endure; it is called “The baptism of
suffering.”
It is
pertinent here to quote the following portions of Scripture.
Mark 10:
38, 39 “Jesus said to them, ‘You do not
know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able.’ So
Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the
baptism that I am baptized with you will be baptized.’”
2
Corinthians 1: 5 “For the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”
No one
wants to hear this, but suffering is good for the believer in that it builds
character and strength into our lives. This Baptism of Suffering is also part
of the Sanctification process.
God’s
ways are not always our ways, and sometimes God will dig the wells of joy with
the spade of sorrow. God is more interested in our character than in our
comfort.
IT IS A SIMPLE FACT THAT WE OFTEN SEE CLEARER THROUGH TEAR-FILLED EYES,
THAN WE DO THROUGH DRY EYES.
Trials
and Tribulations.
We need
to have a Paradigm Shift in our thinking when it comes to trials and tribulations.
Suffering
or Trials and Tribulations adjust our priorities.
Often we
need our priorities adjusted because we have been going off the path of
righteousness without even realizing it.
The core
of who we are in Christ is what our affection is on; what we love; what we rely
on; what we find comfort in; and what we serve.
It
happens all too often that when things are going smoothly that we forget that
our source of supply is our Father. We begin to think that it is our clever
intellect that is keeping us afloat.
Sometimes
too we begin to rely on ourselves instead of relying on God to be our provider.
The bottom line of this situation is what the Bible calls idolatry.
Moralistic
Theism
Then
there is the phenomena called Moralistic Theism. This is basically the idea
that I am living a “good life,” I am moral and good, and as such, God owes me a
good life in return.
If things
are going wrong, then God owes me an explanation.
1 Peter
1: 6 – 8 “In this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various
trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold
that perishes, though tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory
at the revelation of Christ Jesus, whom having not seen you love…”
Trials
and faith are like two sides of the same coin, you cannot separate them.
Suffering
is part and parcel of the human condition.
Trials
produce faith, which in turn is tested by another trial. This ongoing process
is sanctification, and sanctification frees us from the power of sin.
Often in
the grand tapestry of your life, your losses can be of more value to you than
your gains. The dark threads of a tapestry contrast with the light; this very
contrast is what gives the tapestry its character.
James 1:
2 – 4 “My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith
produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be
perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Philippians
4: 11 – 13 “…I have learned in whatever
state I am, to be content; I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.”
God’s
concern with the outcome of our trials is often not what we expect. Whilst we
are determined that the outcome of a trial should be good, God is determined
that we should have Christ as our life, regardless of the outcome.
The
Furnace of Affliction.
Isaiah
48: 10 says “…I have tested you in the
furnace of affliction.”
The
furnace of affliction is not the most popular place for most Christians.
However,
it is here that God can prepare us for His service, because we tend to learn
quickly when we are under pressure.
Jesus
Himself was tested and endured suffering…
Hebrews
5: 8 “…though He was a Son, yet He
learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
The
“crucible of crisis” has a way of humbling us, testing our faith and revealing
to us the true condition of our heart. Religion forces us to cloak ourselves in
superficiality, however, all superficiality is stripped away during times of
trials and tribulations. Just when you think that you are finally “spiritual,”
a trial comes along, and your response is anything but spiritual.
We need
to know the depth of our relationship with Christ; circumstances and situations
do this.
WE NEED
TO KNOW THE CONDITION OF OUR OWN HEART, IF WE ARE TO GROW.
When the
furnace of affliction is seen from the perspective of eternal life, it takes on
a different value. God knows Whom He has placed within us. God is continually
leading us into circumstances and situations that will reveal our true
capabilities.
It is
wise to be alert when things are going well with you, and God’s blessings are
flowing. If the blessings of God become more important than God Himself, those
very blessings can result in a fall. It is a curiosity of the human make-up
that when things are going well, we get amnesia.
Deuteronomy
6: 10 – 12“So it shall be, when the
Lord brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not
build, houses full of good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which
you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant – when you
have eaten and you are full – then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought
you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”
A closing
thought on suffering. Remember that it is foolish to assume that if God is
blessing someone that they are automatically in God’s will. Conversely, if
someone is going through a trial, it does not mean that that person is out of
God’s will. In fact, the probability is that someone going through a trial is
exactly where God wants them to be; not necessarily because they are being
punished, but because God is preparing them for His service.
Failure can be a good thing in God’s hands.
If you
will be honest with yourself, you will be able to look back on your Christian
life and see that even when you seemed to have failed miserably, God has used
the circumstance to build your character and bring you closer to His heart.
1 Peter
5: 10 says, “…may the God of all grace,
who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a
while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
In God’s
dealings with us as believers, He will at times supply our wants as opposed to
the supplying that which He knows we truly need, even if this delays our
knowledge of Christ.
For this
very reason, there is wisdom in the Holy Spirit allowing us to fail at
times.
Failure
will ultimately bring us to the point where we give up trying, and start
trusting God seriously. If our trust is in our ability to handle our own life,
we have not yet come to the end of ourselves, and failure is just around the
corner. When we cease from our struggling and begin to trust the Father with
the faith of Christ within us, we move into a new dimension of fellowship with
our Father.
There are
times when God will give us the desires of our heart even if it is not what He
knows is in our best interest. At times like this it is possible that God will
send leanness along with the answer to our fleshly choices.
Psalm
106: 15 “And He gave them their request,
but sent leanness into their soul.”
The day
that you come to the end of yourself will be the worst and the best day of your
life. The worst because you will quite likely be in the “crucible of crisis,”
the best because from that point on you will rely on Him who is more capable
than you to direct and guide your life with a trust that can only be described
as supernatural. Right there, at the bottom of the barrel, there is a door that
opens to a new realm of spirituality and fellowship with the Father.
Finally
If you
are in a bad place right now and you are hurting and God seems far away; how do
you cope? What are you doing to comfort your hurt?
The flesh
will want you to go back to your old ways. Drugs, booze, sex, porn and all the
other things that you may have been involved in before you got saved. The
familiarity of the old life presents itself as a comfort in your “hour of
need.”
At your
weakest point all the things in your life that dragged you down in the past will
surface again to distract you and cause you to stumble.
If those
things have not been dealt with fully they will resurface again when you are
down.
You may
not even know that they are still lurking there, but God has placed you in a
position where the truth comes out. He does this for your sake. He already
knows your heart, but you may not know what is still lurking in the deep
recesses of your heart. Trials and suffering will bring them out into the open
where you can see them for what they are.
Once
exposed, you can again commit your old nature to the Blood of Christ. Ask God
to do a work in your heart so that you no longer have a desire for the “old
ways and the old things.”
I know
this may sound ridiculous, but what you are going through is for your good.
Deal with
the things that give you comfort in trials and tribulation. If it is not prayer
and a dedication to the Word of God, it is probably the old nature showing up
to give you comfort in the only way it knows. It will turn to the flesh to try
and solve a spiritual problem.
This is
like trying to empty a swimming pool with a bucket by taking water from the
deep end and emptying it into the shallow end. No matter how much effort you
put into it you will be wasting your time and energy.
DO NOT DESPISE THE TRIALS IN YOUR LIFE.
IF YOU ARE GOING THROUGH HELL…KEEP ON GOING.
2 Corinthians
4:17 “For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”