05/08/2024
My morning devotional reading dealt with trouble in our lives and didn't paint a very hopeful picture. It began by saying "trouble is a part of a person's everyday life on earth”, and then concluded with the statement that people who look for sunshine and roses in life "are the people who don't know God, who know nothing of His disciplinary dealings with His people and who are prayerless." Both of these quotes are from Pastor E.M. Bounds and he selected a scripture from Job to accompany them...
“Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.”
Job 14:1 KJV
This message took me back to a past Mother’s Day. It was one in which my wife was late for her Mother's Day brunch and I was waiting on her to finish dressing. As I sat in my prayer chair waiting for her to get ready, I flipped on the television and Joel Osteen was on. Before I could change the channel he said something that froze my hand....
"Get rid of the victim mentality and replace it with a victor mentality." – Joel Olsteen
I listened as he spoke of Good Friday and then said something else that locked me into his sermon for the remainder of the program... he said "2 thousand years ago Good Friday didn't seem so good. The Apostles thought it was the worst day of their lives."
Joel went on to say that although we might think God isn't hearing us... He is. He proposed that what seems like a terrible time in our lives (at that moment for me) God has a purpose far greater than we can imagine. He was basing his sermon on Romans 8:28 which reads:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28 KJV
So who is right? Are we faced with the gloom and doom of Bounds... or the flowers and sunshine of Osteen? I spent an inordinate amount of time considering those positions that morning and finally concluded that my position has always been a combination of the two.
Let me explain my belief; I believe there is always trouble in life, but that shouldn't keep us from asking God to replace those miseries with roses and sunny days. Almost every bible story contains trouble of some kind, but their message isn't meant to demonstrate the futility of life and how to live with trouble, or that trouble is always God's discipline.
God uses the everyday troubles of the world to teach us, to grow us in faith, and yes... Occasionally as a discipline. Often though we get hung-up on the discipline part and begin to feel that we are continuously being punished for some unknown sin. When my kids were young (and still living under my roof) they would do things that required correction. Sometimes I would talk to them, but occasionally, when they were stubborn in their position, I would punish them. I would ground them, make them ride the school bus by taking away their driving privileges... Etc.. One thing that was always the same was that they knew what they had done wrong, and when punishment was necessary they knew why they were being punished. God is like that! He doesn't just bring His wrath down on us without our knowing why! So if bad things befall you and, for the life of you, you can't understand why; then that is most likely one of life's everyday troubles.
Now the learning begins... We lift our problems up to the Lord in prayer. Often we realize that there was a lesson in it for us. Maybe we learned that fervent prayer has its rewards, or something similar. Then, On other occasions we might find that trouble is like the fiery sword that bars us from Eden, and that God is using it to stop us, or to change our path in some dramatic way.
So the bottom line is this... Trouble is natural to our lives, and God uses those troubles to teach us about himself. Only on occasion is that trouble brought on us by God, but when that occurs we will know it is Him, and if not immediately, we will know the reason in short order.
God is indeed good and wants the best for us; He is not vicious or arbitrary. When we find ourselves faced with trials and problems in our lives, pray, and search for Him in them. More often than not we will find Him holding our hand as He leads us to sunnier days and the flowers that await there.
Bounds gave us expectation and Osteen gave us hope... By understanding that the two exist as one we begin to see not just the wrath or the mercy of God, but through their mixture we see His goodness and find His nurturing love as well. Are we experiencing a certain trouble today, and if so, have we asked ourselves, and God, what His will for us in it is?
“Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the Spirit.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 CSB
Prayer:
Father, thank you for using every good and bad thing we experience in life to teach us of you, how to live righteously, how to resist temptation, how to persevere, how to walk as Jesus walks, and every good lesson. Thank you for the sun that shines upon us as well as the pelting hail of the fiercest storms, because there is a lesson for us in each. Help us to understand and see you when we experience the troubles in our lives because you are there with us in them all, and walk with us through the deepest valleys. It is easy to see your handiwork when all is well in the world, and to give you the glory for those times, but when our lives are shrouded in darkness and pain, it is hard for us to see you there. Help us in those darkest of times Father, give us the eyes of a desert owl with which we will be able to see you despite the darkness, and give us the patience of Job as we learn to feel you, and find your hand to lead us on. We sing praises to you in the good times, and lean mightily on you in the bad. Nonetheless, you are there always, and we come to know your character in all of life, and to learn of righteousness in even the most unlikely times and places. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come. Holy are you who was with us in the comfort of our mother’s womb, is with us now in the light of the day, and will always go before us, even during the darkest nights of our lives. You are merciful Father, and forever faithful as you teach us of yourself, and what it means to love, be righteous, and to endure all that the world brings. You take our tribulations and turn them into lessons as you instruct us in not only how to survive, but in how to overcome every trial, temptation and hardship that confronts us. This is why we sing your praises in the day, lean on you when we are in doubt, hold tight to the hand of Jesus when we are lost, and seek your presence in the dark nights of our lives. How wonderful you are, and how comforting it is to know that in everything, and in every circumstance of life, you are there with us. You are our strong tower, and the light of our lives… and we will love you, and trust in you, now, and forevermore.
Amen, Amen, Amen!
Rich Forbes