This week has been a little tough as we've tried to answer the question, Why does God allow people, especially believers in Him, to suffer and why does He permit pain in our lives? I think we would rather like to think that pain and suffering are natural byproducts of this fallen world we live in, which they are, but this week we have seen that God is definitely involved in how they are used in our lives and to what purposes. Does it bother you to know that God not only allows, but sometimes brings hard times to us? Have we figured out why He does that? Let's look at today's observation and then spend some time wrapping up our thoughts around this difficult concept.
And our verse to memorize:
"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
OBSERVATION
Psalm 66:8-12 "Praise our God, you peoples; let the sound of His praise be heard. He keeps us alive and does not allow our feet to slip. For You, God, tested us; You refined us as silver is refined. You lured us into a trap; You placed burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us out into abundance."
Well if we wanted a Scripture to confirm that God is, in fact, the One behind some of our times of troubles and hardships, here it is. In my Bible, this chapter's heading is "Praise for God's Mighty Acts." We have to surmise then that some of God's mighty acts are things that, when we're going through them, don't seem that wonderful - but they are mighty, all the same.
But let's start out where the passage starts out - praising God! Praising God, why? Because He keeps us alive and doesn't let our feet slip. We're here, aren't we? We're breathing, living, and, since we're spending time in this study that is intended to grow us in our faith, we are still seeking God. We are here - seeking to know Him better, our feet haven't slipped. Or as John Gill puts it, "that is, not to be greatly moved; or if moved so as to slip and fall, yet not so as to fall finally and totally." We're here. Praise God!
What have we gone through to get here, though? Have you been tested? Have you been refined? If you haven't, I daresay you will. I don't think God sees any of His children as close enough to His image to not require some testing and refining. And I don't know about you, but I know I still need refining. There are still impurities residing in me that need to be brought out and skimmed off the top. Are we brave enough to say, "Do it, Lord! Whatever it takes."
The writer of this psalm remembers what God had done to the people of Israel - He had tested them. When I read this passage, I think of the Jacob and his sons heading to Egypt because of the famine. Did God allow the famine at this time for purpose? Did God lead them to Egypt for a reason? They went to Egypt for food, and they were fed there - but that provision came with 400 years of slavery. While they were there they were burdened and abused. But God had a purpose in luring them to Egypt - Egypt served as Israel's "incubator", giving them an environment - though difficult and hard at the time - to become a people large enough in number that could survive as a nation. Had Jacob and his sons stayed in Canaan they may well have been destroyed by the countries around them while they were still so small in number that they would have been unable to defend themselves. But they grew in Egypt, they changed in Egypt and Egypt gave Israel something to remember - where they had been, and what God had brought them out of. They went through fire and water, but then He brought them into abundance - He brought them to their promised land.
Can we look at our lives and say the same? Have there been times of hardship that, looking back, we can see God used for good purpose in us. During these times, did we grow and change and become something we weren't before? And can we see that God was with us the whole time, even when it was hard and we didn't think we could keep hanging in there. But we did, and God brought us out, and He will ultimately bring us out to not only a better us, but to a much better life - for He will bring us to our
place of absolute abundance - eternal life with Him.
The passage today starts out by praising God. Can we even praise Him when we realize that He is testing us? Yes, we can - because we know His testing is for good purposes. His testing is refining us so that we can better reflect His image.
WEEK THREE WRAP UP
So how do we now answer the question, why does God allow pain and suffering in the lives of Christians? Shouldn't our faith in Him bring immunity to the pain of the world? No - God doesn't promise His children that. We are in this world and we will go through times of pain and suffering - some even that God orchestrates for good purposes in our lives. Ouch! We don't like hearing that, do we?
Sometimes our troubles come at the hands of our opposition - the world that does not know Christ and does not align with our views of living, and we are given the chance to stand strong for our faith. And sometimes, when we are leading lives of obedience to God, that obedience will lead to our suffering, and God sees our obedience and blesses us. There are times when our suffering gives us great opportunity to testify to God's power and to bring us to people to share the Gospel, people we would have never known had it not been for what we were going through. And as our memory verse for this week, Romans 8:18, reveals to us, suffering here on earth can serve as such a great reminder that we are not yet home, and to keep our eyes on where we are heading where every tear will be wiped away. Finally, we see that our tough times are used by God to refine and purify us into people who truly reflect His image. We need these times if we are to grow, if we are to change. We must constantly remember to ask God to use them for our best good - to bring us through, into abundance.
We serve a good, good God who loves us so much. We must not let the enemy distort His image when we go through pain and suffering. We need to keep our eyes on our good and loving Father who uses all things for our good.
In His Amazing Love,
Janice
*oh, I mentioned the movie "Tortured for Christ" and just today I saw this link where you can view it - you might want to check it out:
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