11/04/2022
When we face great difficulty, or are taken captive by some form of trouble, we turn immediately to God, and begin to search His Word for relief. Those who rarely read the Bible do so when they are hurting, and pour over its pages until at last they latch onto a key verse or two that help them deal with what they are facing in their lives… then they memorize them, and recite them time and again in prayer. There is nothing line feeling separated from God, or a serious problem to bring us close to Him… is this where we are today? Are we in the midst of trouble, and seeking, or returning to Him for relief? Well, He will reveal Himself to us in such times.
“…as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.”
Ezekiel 1:1 ESV
“the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”
Ezekiel 1:3 ESV
I used to describe problems in my life as being “bad luck”, or occurring as the result of “terrible circumstances”, or “my poor planning”, but they were always much more than that. I came to realize that I found a different attribute of God in each and every one of them.
Problems in our lives, and our perception of God, are like the story of the three blind men who were asked to describe an elephant… the three men each felt the elephant and described him based on the part before them… the trunk, a tusk, or it’s broad side. This is true of us too as we describe God based on each encounter with Him that we have. We might describe Him as a mighty warrior when He defeats our enemies, merciful when he gives us food or water, and loving when the burden of our sins are lifted from us by Jesus. Our problems simply move us to a different part of Him, and sometimes we don’t even believe that this could possibly be the same God. Does this sound familiar to you? Here are three quick scriptural examples of how we might describe Him…
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
Isaiah 40:28 ESV
Or…
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
1 John 1:5 ESV
And…
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:8 ESV
God reveals some attribute of His character to us in every problem we face, and the more dire the circumstances we are facing the more desperately we seek Him in His Holy Word. Then, once an answer is found, we memorize that particular verse, and joining it with others from previous troubles we have had, we begin to form our own personal picture of Him. In this way He looks slightly different to each of us based on our experiences, and we call this “having a personal relationship with the Lord.” What does he look like to you? Is He mighty, loving, wise, merciful, full of grace, or a combination of these and other characteristics? Do we begin to rejoice in our troubles because they each fill in another color or two in the paint by numbers picture that we are painting of Him?
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:2-4 ESV
So trouble might be natural and a part of the world, but God used it to bring us closer to Him, and to draw us back into His Word. Unlike good times, when we lean on our own understanding, tribulation is all about leaning on God. Are our problems valuable to us?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your many blessings, but especially for revealing yourself to us through the problems we experience in life. Help us Lord to see you clearly through our tears, and to feel your touch more intensely when we are made raw by life. Open your Word to us through your Holy Spirit, and let us see a portion of you that had previously escaped us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you who desires us to know you more with each passing day, and in every trial we face in life. Praised be your name for coming to us, and dealing with every trouble we have lifted up to you in prayer. Merciful are you who sent your Son Jesus to redeem us, and your Holy Spirit to give us understanding. Amazing are you who takes all things, the good and the bad, and works them together for our good, and your glory. Wash us in the blood of your Son Jesus to not only cleanse us of sin, but to teach us of your love. Show us eternity, snd your grace through Him Father, so that we might see His face I. Yours, and you can see it likewise in ours.
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
Romans 1:20 ESV
“these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
1 Corinthians 2:10 ESV
Rich Forbes