Thought for the Day:
Psalm 119: 71 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might
learn your statutes.”
Psalm 119:75
“I know, O
LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have
afflicted me.”
Randy Alcorn writes, “If
it was good for the psalmist to be afflicted, then for God to send that
affliction would be to send good, wouldn’t it?
To withhold that affliction would be to withhold good. My friend David O’Brien told me that God used
his cerebral palsy to draw him to depend upon Christ. Is he better off? He’s convinced that he is. His seventy-five years of suffering are no
cosmic accident or satanic victory, but severe mercy from the good hand of God. I haven’t met many people more convinced of
God’s goodness than David O’Brien. He’s
experienced a lifetime of serious afflictions that many consider senseless
evil, but David sees them as tools in the hands of a good God. [If God is Good,
Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil].
I then read in Richard
Carlson’s book, “The root of being uptight is our unwillingness to accept life
as being different, in any way, from our expectations. Very simply, we want
things to be a certain way but they’re not a certain way. Life is simply as it is…. The first step in recovering from over
seriousness is to admit that you have a problem. You have to want to change to become more
easygoing. You have to see that your own
uptightness is largely of your own creation—it’s composed of the way you have
set up your life and the way you react to it.
The next step is to understand the link between your expectations and
your frustration level. Whenever you
expect something to be a certain way and it isn’t, you’re upset and you
suffer. On the other hand, when you let
go of your expectations, when you accept life as it is, you’re free.” [Don’t
Sweat the Small Stuff, and it’s all small stuff].
As I thought about what
I had read and about what I know about God, it really made sense. My afflictions (for me these are medical
issues, for you it might be a multitude of things) are intended by God to bring
about good in my life. If my continued
problems are the tools that God uses to work in my life, to strengthen my
faith, to draw me closer to God, then why would I object to them? In fact, if they are good for me, then if God
refused to allow them to happen to me, I would be getting less than all the
goodness God desired to bestow up me. That’s
an entirely different viewpoint from what we usually have concerning
afflictions.
You probably understand
how easy it is to wander away from God.
It’s not planned; but over time, your relationship cools, you don’t
spend as much meaningful time in reading the bible and in praying, your feel a separation
growing between you. When things are
going well in my life, I find myself easily becoming complacent. If I’ve got a good income, a happy family,
and my health (my basic needs are met), what more do I really need? A stress-free life rarely incites a hunger
for God and you rarely see Him at work in your life. On the other hand, difficulties, affliction,
turmoil, pain and suffering strip away this sense of satisfied well-being. It is at these times when we cry out to God
more frequently and we spend more time seeking Him. When we come to the point of accepting what
our new reality is and let go of our unrealistic expectations, when we learn to
confidently trust in Him despite our circumstance, then peace can begin to
flood our souls.
This doesn’t mean that
we give up and don’t seek to overcome our affliction; but it means that we aren’t
as frantic and panicked if it doesn’t happen (or happen as quickly as we might
like). My desire is for God to restore
my health to me and allow me to enjoy my life doing the things that I want to
do most. Maybe that will happen. Maybe it won’t. If I remain the same (or even grow worse),
yes, I’ll be disappointed but I will not despair. For I am certain that God is at work in me.
One way of thinking
about this is to ask yourself the question, “Is God enough?” If I have God and lose everything else that I
think makes up the good life, would God be enough? It is one thing to say that when it is all
blue skies, butterflies and cuddly puppies.
It is quite another when plank after plank of the life you’ve built is
ripped away from you.
As painful as it has
been, I am grateful to say that at this point in my life, I will confirm that
God is enough. I might find greater
affliction ahead and more things stripped from my grasp, but I hope to continue
to say, God alone is enough!
Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;”
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