Thought for
the Day
Talking with
friends, we all agree that some days are more stressed-filled than others. Thinking of those who are struggling to
overcome a physical ailment, it is easy to imagine how difficult some days may
be. You get your hopes up waiting for a
treatment to work, and for too long afterwards you are still left waiting. Now you wait for your next doctor’s
appointment hoping that they have an idea for something else to try to relieve
your suffering. You get word that the
insurance company just denied a claim for treatment or equipment that was
needed. The storm that blew through left
a mess in your yard. Prior to your illness,
you would have gone outside and taken care of it yourself. Now you are forced to call someone to do it
for you. You never know how you are
going to feel in the next day or two, so you can never make plans. Some
folks face pain day after day. Others
have very little hope of things being different or of them getting better. By themselves, none of these things seems too
bad; but when you combine them with the long-term stress of recovery, they
quickly become overwhelming. The daily
grind of living is hard enough to battle without having one more thing being
dumped upon you.
I used to
think, “Oh, that person is out of the hospital so everything is okay now.” Now I know better. The stay in the hospital is just the
beginning of their trials. It’s like
thinking after running one mile, “This isn’t too bad” when you have at least 25
more miles to run to complete the marathon.
Just wait! It gets tougher as you
go along.
For a
Christian, sometimes these feelings can be intensified. “Why hasn’t God answered my prayers and
stopped this?” “Does God even care?” “Is God even able to make a difference in my
life?” Maybe you don’t actually put
these thoughts into words, but those questions linger at the back of your mind
nonetheless. We don’t understand why God
would allow this to be happening in our lives or in the life of someone we
love.
All of this
can be such an emotional, physical, spiritual drain on our batteries. That’s the way I felt this morning. Everything was weighing on me a bit too
heavily. I decided that I needed to
spend some time with God in prayer and in reading the bible. I’ve been reading in the book of Exodus, so I
took up where I’ve left off in Exodus chapter 6. Moses confronts Pharaoh with God’s message to
“Let my people go.” The people of God
have been in bondage for years, crying out to God for deliverance. God sends Moses to Pharaoh, so everything is
good now, right? No. We see that time after time, Pharaoh’s heart
was hardened and he refused to release the people of Israel. Things even got worse for God’s people
instead of better. Their lives became
more difficult.
Okay. Why?
If God is sovereign, why didn’t His word to Pharaoh produce instantaneous
results? Why did the people continue to
suffer after they cried out? Was it because
God didn’t care or because He was powerless to force the change? NO! It
was so that the people’s freedom would be won with an indisputable show of God’s
power. God would be glorified and
honored as the people are set free after demonstrating His power over and over
again.
Then it
struck me. God hasn’t answered my
prayers yet (and maybe hasn’t answered yours yet either) because He is setting
the stage for His name to be magnifying to a greater degree. Each difficulty that we face and every day
that we struggle means that when the victory comes, it will be that much
sweeter. The more difficult the victory,
the more that we will recognize that this could only have happened because of
the power of God. It won’t happen
because of human wisdom or ingenuity. It
won’t be accomplished by man’s desire or effort. All those things have been tried and we’ve
exhausted all other possibilities. Then
when the answer finally comes about—we know without a shadow of doubt that God
has done it. And we praise Him more!
Every day
that goes by without our prayers being answered is just God setting the stage
for a greater victory. My suffering, my
discomfort, my frustration has a purpose and is a part of His plan. Certainly, I would prefer if my life was
easier and more pain-free. But if it’s
not going to be, then I want the struggle to have purpose and meaning. That’s what the story of the Ten Plagues
reminded me of. God’s plan fulfilled in
His time results in His glory. And for
this day in my life, that’s enough for me.
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