Tag Suffering

It’s Never Too Late

Todd R 1 Comment

The New Testament book of Acts is also sometimes referred to as “Acts of the Apostles” because of the book’s focus on the apostles and God’s work through them.  The book has story after story of them preaching, but also healing and performing miracles.

For example, Acts 3 has a story of a man healed by the power of Jesus through Peter and John.  They were walking to the temple for prayer, and came across a lame man begging for alms.  But instead of giving the man money, Peter says to him, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”  Then, “immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.”[1]

This is already an impressive miracle, but Luke (author of Acts) adds some additional details to show us that God had sovereignly arranged this miracle for maximum effect.  First, Acts 3:2 tells us this man had been “lame from birth” and verse 10 says all the people recognized him, so there could be no denying it was the same man.  Later on, Luke adds another detail to the story, in Acts 4:22. “For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.”  If this were a hoax, one might imagine someone putting it on for a short period of time, but not for forty years!  And not from birth!  In addition, someone lame for any period of time should take months or years to gain strength enough to walk and leap, but this man was immediately healed!  This was undeniably a miracle.

However, I think the mention of the man’s age carries a couple of other lessons as well.

First, like the healed man, many people live for forty years or longer before coming to really know Christ, but Jesus found him.  Therefore, it’s never too late for someone to come to Christ.  Also, for those who already know Christ, it’s never too late to find purpose in Him.  God may reveal His purposes late in someone’s life.  Sometimes being a late bloomer only means that was God’s timing.  Many can discover gifts and ministries late in their life, meaning either their biological or Christian life.

Lastly, this miracle on a forty-year-old shows us that even great suffering can result in glory to God.  We don’t know why this man had to suffer with disability for so long, but we do know that the name of Jesus was glorified in the presence of many because he was healed.  We may never understand why there is so much suffering in this world, but God assures us with this miracle that it is inevitable that He will be glorified.  Suffering can have a purpose.

So, if you’re suffering in some way, or even struggling to overcome some specific sin, it’s never beyond Jesus’ ability to heal you.  If you’re frustrated with a lack of purpose or struggling to fit in, it’s never too late to find meaning in a walk with Christ.  If this has been going on for a long time – even forty years or longer – it’s never too late to hope in Jesus.  He will heal all our physical, emotional, and spiritual problems in His timing and in the way that will most glorify Him.  He guarantees it.

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” – Romans 8:29

Soli Deo Gloria

[1] Acts 3:1-10

Waiting on God’s Timely Deliverance

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Fellow Travelers,

There are times in our lives where God seems to be distant and uninvolved.  In these times we may feel like crying out with the Psalmist:

“Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
            Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Why do you hide your face?
            Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?”[1]

The nation of Israel faced times like these, and one example comes from Exodus chapter 5.  The story is during Israel’s slavery in Egypt, while Moses was pleading with Pharaoh to let Israel go to worship God.  Pharaoh was stubborn because Israel was a vast (and free) workforce for him.  Instead of letting Israel go, he decided to punish them.  Pharaoh commanded his taskmasters: “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves.  But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.”[2]

With their jobs suddenly much harder, the people of Israel complained to Moses: “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”[3]  Even Moses became discouraged and frustrated, as we see in the next verses: “Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”[4]

It seemed like God was “sleeping.”  Like He had forgotten His people’s “affliction and oppression.”

However, we know that earlier God told Moses: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”[5]

God was not sleeping; He has “surely seen” what was happening.  He also had not forgotten; He had a plan “to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,” even if it wasn’t apparent to Moses and the people.  Their frustration grew because time had passed since God made His promises, and they still hadn’t been delivered.

Do we often feel the same frustration?  Do we often feel His deliverance should come sooner?  We know in our minds that God sees the effect of sin on the world, and on each one of us.  We also know that He has promised to return and deliver us from our sin.  But time keeps passing.

From our point of view, we have information Moses and the people didn’t have.  We know that Israel did eventually enter the “broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”  It took time, but it happened when God determined it was the right time.  When His people were truly ready.  Therefore, we know that God will also deliver us when He determines it is the right time.  When His people are ready.  Not because we see certain signs or our interpretations of prophecy have been fulfilled.  We have the gospel “as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”[6]  When the time is right, according to God (not according to us), all will be aligned under His plan.  Things we currently know and see, and things not yet revealed.  Only God knows.

In the meantime, do we give God the right to determine the method and timing of our deliverance?  Or do we impatiently insist on our own way and timing?  Would we have chosen this world as the path to heaven, or would we have designed a different way, if given the choice?  Because this is the world we have, we know God chose this way, and we must trust Him, for only Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life.”[7]

Sometimes things look to us like we should cry out to God, “you have not delivered your people at all,” but He delivered Israel from Egypt in His time, and He will deliver us in His time.  He guarantees it.

[1] Psalm 44:23-24
[2] Exodus 5:7-8
[3] Exodus 5:21b
[4] Exodus 5:22-23
[5] Exodus 3: 7b-8
[6] Ephesians 1:10
[7] John 14:6

God is Faithful in Trouble

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Fellow travelers,

Psalm 71 was likely written by an old man, looking back over his life and the many instances of God’s faithfulness.  Looking back over a lifetime of walking with God strengthens his current faith, and he writes to strengthen ours.  Although some might expect a testimony of God’s faithfulness to talk about uninterrupted good fortune and all the good times the Psalmist has had, in verse 20, they write:

“You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
            will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
            you will bring me up again.”

This man’s life, like most people’s lives, was filled with “many troubles and calamities,” yet these only strengthen his faith because God has rescued him every time in the past.  Without allowing us to experience trouble, how could God develop a track record of rescuing us?  John Calvin comments on this verse that:

“Had he always enjoyed a uniform course of prosperity, he would no doubt have had good reason to rejoice; but in that case he would not have experienced what it is to be delivered from destruction by the stupendous power of God. We must be brought down even to the gates of death before God can be seen to be our deliverer.”

God is always faithful, but we experience it especially in bad times.

Amen.

The Scale of Our Trials

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The apostle Paul begins 2 Corinthians with the usual greeting, followed by a section on the comfort God provides us when we suffer or are afflicted for Christ’s sake.  2 Corinthians 1:5 makes this statement: “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

On that verse, Charles Spurgeon wrote this analogy: “The Ruler of Providence bears a pair of scales—in this side He puts His people’s trials, and in that He puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy.”[1]

Therefore, when living for Christ brings trouble and opposition, remember also that our Father is ruler of all and fully intends to share His comfort with us through Christ eternally.

“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

[1] From “February 12” of Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning commentary

Letting God Pick Our Battles II

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Photo by Andrey Grinkevich on Unsplash

The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me,” yet he also wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 that “to keep me from becoming conceited,” a “thorn was given me in the flesh.”  He writes: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

The nature of Paul’s “thorn” has been disputed for centuries, but Galatians 4:13 suggests it was a physical problem, a “bodily ailment” rather than a moral shortcoming.  So, the lesson of the “thorn” is not that God prevented Paul from overcoming some specific sin to keep him humble – He wants Paul (and us) to be satisfied with nothing less than righteousness.

However, one lesson of the “thorn” is that Paul didn’t mean by “I can do all things” that he could do whatever he wanted and succeed.  Instead, the “thorn” is an example of a battle Paul would not win, because this “thorn” had a purpose in bringing Paul closer to God’s grace and power.  In God’s wisdom, Paul was better off with this ailment than without it.

Yesterday’s post said “Picking your battles, rather than trying to fight and win every fight that comes your way, is a good piece of advice.  However, who should pick which battles to fight?”  In the case of the “thorn”, God picked a battle for Paul not to fight, telling him instead to focus on growing in faith.  The thorn had a purpose in Paul’s striving toward righteousness, which was more important than any physical ailment.  Had Paul continued to insist to God that the thorn should be removed, he would still have the thorn, but he would also not grow in his relationship with his Lord.

Sometimes there are battles He wants us to fight in His strength for His glory, and sometimes there are battles He tells us not to fight so we can focus on His grace and power while in this life, in light of His promises to heal our physical ailments in Paradise.

Today’s post closes the same way as yesterdays: “Sometimes life is hard on purpose, so that God alone may be glorified in victory, and also so that we may grow in our faith in His strength.  When we let Him pick our battles, we learn that His righteousness is the only thing that will satisfy us.  Nothing less will do.”