Does knowing God is in control and that He is sovereign
make the pain any less when you go through some heart breaking experience?
Part of our inheritance as an heir of Christ is to suffer with Him while in this world.
“and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be
glorified with Him.” Romans 8:17 (NASB) Part of our inheritance as an heir of Christ is to suffer with Him while in this world.
I saw this statement recently, “You are only as
powerful as you are dependent on God's strength” and it is so true. All power
is in God as it is really His power operating in my life and through me, not me
helping God or God even helping me, but me obeying and God using me.
One way God prepares you to be dependent and used by Him is through the pain and trials of a
world that is corrupted by sin. Not only our natures but the very earth itself
is fallen and “We know that the whole creation groans and suffers…” (Romans
8:22). God can and will use ‘it’ (whatever you are going through), but also things
sometime don’t work out while you are here on this earth, because of what sin
has done to the world.
People are persecuted for their faith with no hope of ever escaping that persecution
on this earth and people are taken in by the lies of the devil, dying without
Jesus without hope ever for eternity. Good people have problems and suffer both
emotionally and physically and continue trusting in God, but they still hurt. Life on this planet as
a Christian can be difficult and painful, but we do have a certain future in
Heaven; like Jesus said in John 14, He will come back for us.
There are days it is hard to believe as Tony Evans
said, that “God will meet you where you are in order to take you where He wants
you to go.” You and I have a hard time with daily dying to self, but in our
lives are other people we love and care about. If you see people who say they
love God, yet continually choose to do things that God hates it hurts; and there
is nothing we can do to make them change. Also, it is not your job or mine to
try to change people. We can pray, share, counsel, love and trust God to work
in them as He does in us, but it still
hurts.
Things like a Father who won’t be a part of his
children’s life because he is inconvenienced or are mad at the mother or some
other selfish ‘reason’. Women who leave their husband for another man or their ‘happiness’
when God says divorce, as well as the adultery, is wrong; And us, when we put “ME”
at the center of life rather than God. These things may break our heart, but choose
to trust God, to obey and love Him because you know He is sovereign even when you
may not feel like He is and don’t understand what or why something is happening.
The
pain is still there and real, but the peace is there too if you know Jesus
and choose to believe that what He says is true and that He is trustworthy. Be
sure your suffering is for Christ or a part of obedience and not the result of
your sin. Then, let your suffering drive you to your knees and to love God and
let the suffering of those you love drive you to your knees trusting in God.
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to
Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever
and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)
Thank you God that you are in control and that you
are trustworthy and that you love us! Thank you for our glorification that we
will one day get to experience!
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