August 16
August 16
Every hard thing God brings upon his people is designed to be redemptive.
I have written about my physical trials before, but I want to reference them again here. I have had ten surgeries in seven years, and I continue to deal with difficult physical issues. Sometimes, all I am able to pray is, “Lord, help me.” It is a daily battle to continue with the wonderful gospel work God has so graciously called me to. It is exhausting and discouraging to be physically unwell. It’s hard to make sense of the suffering. I have determined not to let myself get angry with God. I preach to myself that he is perfectly holy and, because he is, that everything he has chosen for me is right and good, even though it does not seem good at street level. I know he hears my cries. I know he is near and active, even when he seems distant and passive.
My situation causes me ask, “Why would a good, holy, wise, and merciful God ever choose for his children to have to endure such hard things?” Either you quit believing that he is good, or you believe that there is a wise and good purpose behind the hard things. The suffering of God’s people is a theme of the book of Jeremiah, and I am reminded that there is no unneeded or unprofitable material in God’s word. In Jeremiah we read about situations that seem so different from our daily experience, yet this topic touches all of us.
God is bringing unthinkable hardship on his people, and he wants them to know why. The hardship is not the result of vengeful anger. Yes, his children have given themselves to rebellion and idolatry, and, yes, God has warned them that there will be consequences. But he wants them to know ahead of time why he is choosing to lead them through this travail:
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” (Jer. 36:1–3)
Here is the answer to my question. Hardship, in the hands of the Lord, is a tool of his grace. He doesn’t lead his children through difficulty just because he has the power to do so. His intentions are gracious; he desires that we turn to him and find forgiveness in him.
My suffering has produced spiritual fruit that seven easy years would never have produced. Yes, we will suffer, but behind our suffering is a loving God, whose intentions in our lives are filled with grace.