by Page Austin God lovingly uses your troubles to enhance your relationship with Him (Psalm 3:1-4) [Read Psalm 3:1-4 Aloud] Just reading the title of this devotional causes me a little angst. Mainly because I don’t like to be uncomfortable. I don’t want to have troubles. So, what I tell myself is, if I can stay focused on God and continue to grow closer to Him and do all the right things then MAYBE I can be spared some of life’s troubles. Not sure if you noticed, but that whole sentence was about ME and performance and control. How silly! But I am sure I am not the only one who has thought that! When I look back at my life and the trials and fire I have been through, that’s when I can see God so clearly in my life. Reflecting on those troubles, I now see how much God loves me and how He showed up to care for me. It was a great reminder that He is in control and that He works everything out for His purposes…good purposes. We live in a fallen, broken world and troubles will come…no matter how good of a person or Christian you are. It’s in those times that we need to turn TO God not from Him. As David mentioned in the Psalm we just read, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” Do you believe that? Do you believe the Lord will be with you and will lift your head in times of trouble? A pastor at Watermark has said you don’t want to figure out what you believe in the emergency room. He told a story about a father whose daughter was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive disease that would soon take her life. It was in that moment that He started questioning who God is and if God was so good why was this happening to him. You see, he never thought about God or what he believed in until that moment. If he would have known the God that I know, he would have had a peace that transcends all understanding, the strength and comfort that only God can provide. Does that mean that news would have been easier to take? Absolutely not. It still would have been hard and terribly sad. But in the worst of times, we can lift our heads with joy knowing that a loving God, who gave up his only Son so we could have eternal life, loves us and works everything out for His good. What do you believe? How do you handle life’s troubles? Do you run to God or from him? Your actions will always dictate what you believe. Take some time to reflect on the hard times you have been through. How have you handled them? That will give you some clarity on what you believe.
0 Comments
by Steven Nguyen “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:18 Not only has this verse have been a comfort to me but the entire chapter of Romans 8 has been a comfort to me. The fact that through suffering God is with me, when I doubt Him, He is with me. When I can’t make sense of what is in front of me, He is with me. I do not take this topic very lightly for I know that there are many of us that have experienced many grievous and painful things. Things that have taken months to years to heal from, things that have shaped our present realities, losses that we can’t explain.
A hope in the present realities that God is with us and He is for us. I heard a pastor say that there is nothing that has happened within our lives that hasn’t passed through the hands of God. If we are believers and followers of Jesus we can never again be cast away from the presence of God again as Romans 8:38-39 declares to us. Jesus tells us that in this life there will be trouble (John 16:33) yet we see that all of God’s promises find their yes in Jesus. This is where our hope lies in the midst of suffering. I bit of a chuckle for me, for I had to read When Trouble Shows Up by Dr. Robert D. Jones for my counseling class. As I finished the book, the next day I experienced a loss and I found myself needing to get my eyes off of myself for a little and see things from 30,000 feet view above to what God is and was doing at the time. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything and especially a time to mourn. In the midst of trouble, I would encourage us to lift our eyes off of ourselves and present circumstances for a little and consider all the ways God shows His love to us in hardship. Dr. Jones gives us the 7 E’s in When Trouble Shows Up to help us see suffering through the Word of God:
Look to Jesus who is the founder and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-3). Joni Eareckson Tada says that “Every sorrow we taste will one day prove to be the best possible thing that could have happened to us. We will thank God endlessly in heaven for the trials that he sent us here.” I pray that we would cling to the promises of God, the 7 E’s and have the heart of Joni in the midst of suffering. If you do not know Christ, I pray that you would consider what it would be like to have hope in the midst of troubles. |
Follow us on instagram
Categories
All
|