May 1, 2011 … Why Sufferings and Trials

Blogger's Note: This month my use of John MacArthur's daily devotional book, Strength for Today leads me into a study of the things in life we'd like to avoid ... trials, troubles, and temptations. Anybody identify? Come along; and let's grow together >>>
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Passage of the Day: Job 5: 7 … Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.

My Journal for Today: Trials, tribulations, temptations, testing, troubles … all the big “T”s that we’d like to avoid in life. Yet somehow, intuitively, we know that we’re going to face all of these “Ts.” This month I’ll be looking at these, again with John MacArthur’s help from his devotional book, Strength for Today. And to begin this, we go to the #1 book in the Bible on troubles and trials; and that, of course, is in the study of the life of Job, which, according to scholars much more knowledgeable that I am, is the oldest book in the Bible and the account of God’s exemplary “trouble child,” who was the subject of Satan’s ire and became God’s example for all mankind of handling trials and tests.

It’s very easy for any of us to get down when suffering or trials visit our lives. Right now, as I write this, the area where I live has been wracked with tornadoes and floods. Hundreds have died and are homeless because of the devastation; and as the Mississippi River rises close to us, many more may be forced out of their homes very soon. Trials, troubles, and tribulations! … The truth of today’s verse, along with all that Job faced, reminds us that tribulations are just a part of life. We’re all going to face them at some time and in some fashion in our walk on this earth. And so, knowing this, we must guard against letting the challenges of life get us down.

Jonah (see Jonah, Chapter 4) and Elijah (in 1st Kings 19: 1 – 14), both prophets of God, let their anguish over trials in their respective lives cause them to even pray to die. And I would expect that some of you reading this may have been at that point sometime in your life. But fortunately for these two, and perhaps you, God doesn’t always answer “YES” when we pray for things that we don’t need or shouldn’t have.

But we have to remember the wonderful words of our Savior … (from John 16: 33) …

SCRIPTURE: John 16: 33 … "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

And even though our trials may not be as intense as those of Job or others in the Bible, we can also take heart from the magnificent promises of two passages of scripture that I rely upon almost daily to deal the challenges of my life or of those whom I love. Let me post them here, because I think I’ll be making reference to them more than once during this month as we talk about dealing with the troubles of life. Please note and meditate on 1st Cor. 10: 13 and 2nd Cor. 12: 9 … and I would exhort you to have these two deeply planted in your minds/hearts …

SCRIPTURE: 1st Cor. 10: 13 … No temptation [also translated “test, trial, or tribulation”] has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

SCRIPTURE: 2nd Cor. 12: 9 … But He [Jesus] said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore [Paul writes], I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

God’s always there for me, no matter what the trial may be, … no matter how tough it is for me to handle, … God is there, faithfully, to give me the strength so that I may stand up under the challenges I face. And I need not fear because God will always be there to lift me up when I am down [find and meditate on Deut. 31: 8 and Isaiah 41: 10 on your own].

My Prayer Today: Thank you, Lord, for always being there to lift me – in ANY trial. Amen

February 10, 2011 … God Is Everywhere

Passage of the Day: 1st Kings 8: 27 … [From Solomon’s prayer] … “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain You. How much less this temple I have built! ”

My Journal for Today: As I explore the attributes of God this month, one that is most reassuring to me as a Christian is the characteristic of God being OMNIPRESENT. No, there is no way that I can totally get my mind around that quality completely. But when I think of the reality of God being infinitely present everywhere and always, it goes “hand-in-glove” with the proclamation of Hebrews 13: 5 …

SCRIPTURE: Heb. 13: 5 … God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." [quoted from Deut. 31: 6]

And when God’s word, and especially when Jesus, commands us to do something, even something enormous like the Great Commission (see Matt. 18: 19-20), we can know that He’s always there WITH us and FOR us. That’s also the promise of 1st Cor. 10: 13 … a verse which I memorized a long time ago to help me in times of testing, trial, and/or temptation …

SCRIPTURE: 1st Cor. 10: 13 No temptation [which can also be translated “test, trial, trouble, or tribulation”] has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

It’s God’s infinitely caring omnipresence that makes such a promise possible, affirming for believers that God is ALWAYS faithful and will ALWAYS be there, ANYWHERE and in ANY SITUATION, to provide the way for us when were being tried, tested, or tempted. Now is that cool, or what?!!!

And so, I believe the reality of God’s omnipresence should not seem like a God who’s constantly tracking us, … like some all powerful private eye. No, rather it should motivate us towards holiness because of God’s omnipresent love, mercy, and grace, which is always there to lift us up when we need it (see Isaiah 41: 10). Certainly, there is no where we can go to hide our sin from God (see Ps. 139: 1-12). But God’s omnipresence is much more positively seen in His promise of everlasting cleansing from sin (1st John 1: 9), allowing us to move on toward a life of Christlikeness (see Gal. 2: 20).

[Blogger’s Note: Other than the highlight verse for the day from 1st Kings and possibly the longer passage from Ps. 139, I think any reader should be motivated to memorize all of the other verses quoted in the exposition of today’s devotional entry. They are all verses which can useful for encouragement when circumstances are challenging. And who of us couldn’t use that?!]

My Prayer Today: Thanks for being everywhere with me, Lord. Amen

2010 – Day 23. Jan. 23 – Bargaining with God

Study from Exodus 5 – 8; Passage for Reflection: Exodus 8: 15 … NIV But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said.

My Journal for Today: Have you ever had a plague of frogs in your life? Well, maybe not literally; but maybe you were immersed in a catastrophic disease, involving yourself or a loved one? Perhaps you were in the midst of a rancorous divorce for a long period of time; or maybe you experienced the grief which follows the death of a loved one. And sometimes these emotionally laden plagues can be overwhelming; can’t they?

And in the midst of a plague of “frogs or locusts, or flaming hail stones,” did you ever find yourself bargaining with God? Maybe you prayed, “God deliver me from this horrible habit [whatever your sin stronghold might be], and I’ll never do it again!” Or maybe you could be heard to pray, “Lord, if you solve this problem for me, I’ll be a better servant for whatever you want me to do.” And then when the plague passed you and the panic diminished, your part of the “bargain” was forgotten or ignored into the future. Ever been there? I have.

Or maybe … all of a sudden … out of the blue, after praying a bargain basement prayer to God, perhaps the plague went away … quickly, seemingly giving you a positive answer to your prayer. Most certainly God can do that; and, though not often, occasionally He does. But most of the time, the plague of circumstances, which has you so wrapped up or is discouraging you, must run its course in time; and you have to deal with the fact that God may have heard you but answered with a “wait and see” or maybe a “sorry, Charlie” response. Oh, how easy it is to think that God has rejected you or forgotten you as you’re riding out a long-term storm in your life. When God says, as He did to the Prophet Habakkuk, “Things are going to get worse before they get better;” … it’s hard to be patient and believe in the truth of Romans 8: 28 (and I hope you know that one by heart). To believe and live with the truth that ALL things work together for my good, as a Christian, in the midst of some personal plague is a big and hard pill to swallow. And often I’m tempted to bargain with God for relief. But God is God; and He will not be mocked by our trying to make Him into a “genie in the bottle,” with pitiful bargains we usually can’t or won’t keep anyway.

I hope you’ve grown to the place in your walk with God that you know He is doing good things for you … yes, even when the plague of frogs is upon you. I really hope, and will pray today, that you believe and live with the truth that any storm in life is there for a purpose and that purpose involves bringing you closer to God and reshaping you into the image of His Son.

Yesterday, I was a breakout speaker at a Maximum Man Conference in Jackson, TN; and I had the opportunity to meet and hear Dr. Tony Evans, the well-known Pastor and speaker from Dallas, TX. And his talk last night was taken from Jer. 29: 11-13 [linked here]. That’s a great passage, taken from a chapter where the Prophet was having a really tough time in the midst of a Book where God’s people were REALLY having a bad time. And then there is this wonderful verse, Jer. 29: 11, which is so uplifting when you, like Jeremiah, may be experiencing one of those “plagues” or storms in life. Isn’t it great, when you’re going through a bad time – a really bad time – to know that God still has plans for you, … that He wants to use this current rotten set of circumstances to draw you to Himself and then to use you for HIS glory. I don’t know about you; but the timing of Dr. Evan’s message last night, being totally in accord with my devotional this morning, spoke volumes to my soul. I hope it has for you as well.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, I actively pray, as I do often, that You’ll be patient with my impatience … that You’ll give me grace when I’m graceless … and that You’ll reshape me into Your image when I’m so covered with the warts of my past sin. Amen

2009 – Day 296.Oct 24 – God’s Waiting Room

1st Passage for Study: Acts 11: 25 … Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul.

2nd Passage for Study: 2nd Cor. 12: 1 – 11 … Linked for your study …

My Journal for Today: Wow, … 2nd Corinthians 12 is one of my favorite Pauline application passages from God’s word, telling about Paul’s thorn in the flesh and Christ’s perfectly sufficient grace to give Paul (and us, by extension) strength in the midst of our weakness. Perhaps you’ve gleaned a lot of strength from this passage … as have I.

But Pastor Swindoll, this morning, helped give me more historical context on this passage. He helped me see that when Barnabas came and retrieved Paul from Tarsus, it was during that time in his home town that the former Saul was tortured, flogged several times, and even survived a stoning. And quite possibly, Swindoll speculates – and I think it could be so – Paul may have lapsed into the semi-conscious state he refers to in 2nd Cor. 12: 2, where Paul was given a vision of glory, which would lead him to be able to declare that he could boast only in his own weakness, discovering that God would pour His own strength into Paul’s weakened life, … Paul having been humbled by this experience in Tarsus.

And then Swindoll points to our own lives, speculating that some of us may have had our “times of Tarsus,” experiencing some devastating time of personal damage. Perhaps it was a devastating injury. I think of Joni Eeareckson Tada, who’s been a quadriplegic for over 40 years; but she is one who always declares God’s goodness and purpose for her “handicap.” Maybe you have had a devastating personal setback; … maybe it was an incarceration like that of Chuck Colson, whose salvation and ministry to prisoners resulted from his Watergate conviction. Maybe, like yours truly, you arose from years of habitual sin to discover that God’s mercy can – and does – heal and renew us to serve Him and to use His power to overcome our own weaknesses.

That’s what the Apostle Paul discovered in his time of privation in Tarsus; and it was during those horribly difficult times, his time of preparation, from which he arose, with the help of Barnabas, and came to Antioch to join the other Apostles and disciples of Christ in a church movement which had been growing. But, as we would see, God’s Church which would grow exponentially from Paul’s Spirit-imparted gifts which would be used, by God’s enabling grace, to spread the Gospel to much of the known world at that time.

But Paul had to learn – as he did in Tarsus and we need to learn now – that it is only in humility we can receive God’s enabling grace to overcome our own weaknesses. And prayerfully we are learning that lesson as we are living our lives … maybe in a Tarsus time right now.

My Prayer for Today: Heavenly Father, I thank you for the “Tarsus-time” in my life which led me to find and use Your strength so that I could serve You. Help me to be continually wrapped in that humility so that You can pour Your grace and strength into my weakness. Amen

2009 – Day 251.Sept 09 – God Will Reward

Passage of the Day: Job 23 … Linked for study …

My Journal for Today: My friend, who might be reading Chapter 23 again along with me, don’t you just want to scream out to Job, “Hey, my suffering Brother, every thing’s going to be okay. I’ve read the end of your story; and God’s going to reward your faith in the end.”

Yes, if you’ve read on ahead or know the last chapter of Job’s book, God restores all that the suffering servant has lost; and Job’s body is refigured into normal health and wellness. But right now, in Chapter 23, Job can’t see that. He’s at a loss to explain why God seems so distant and why he [Job] is sitting out on a garbage heap, having lost all his children and his wealth, and why he’s covered in boils. But somehow, even with a bunch of friends who are giving him intolerably bad advice, Job remains faithful.

And Swindoll points out that our hero makes three declarations of faith in one verse (verse 10) of this chapter. He says, "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." And we need to catch the import of what Job is saying here.

First Job is saying that God is in control, saying, in essence, that God knows what is going on. And secondly Job denies that it is somehow Job’s fault that he suffers, saying that it is God Whom has chosen to test him. And finally, Job expresses the ultimate in hopefulness, declaring that one day God is going to reward his (Job’s) faithfulness, as he declaring that God will one day reward him in some unique way. Read verse 10, Chapter 23 again. All three of those faithful declarations are there. And don’t you just want to slap Job on the back as say, “Right on, brother!!”

And that’s why when you read Chapter 23, we empathetically want to be the fourth friend for Job, telling him that we know the end of the story; and we can assure our brother that God will ultimately do everything he’s declaring in verse 10. But when you think about it, we Christians who live today, can say that about any set of circumstances in our lives which makes God feel distant and where we suffer loss or physical deprivation.

I’m sure as I write this there have been times in your life where things have really gone bad for you and where God seemed like He was totally AWOL. But in moments like those are we not being tested as to our belief in all those truths we declare are absolutely true in God’s word. Think of verses I’ve already quoted in our study of Job. And if we believe in the truth of 2nd Tim. 3: 16, that all Scripture (all of the Bible) is God breathed, then we have to believe that Hebrews 11: 6 is true where it says that our faith is going to be rewarded. And we have to believe in the truth of 1st Cor. 15: 52 … that one day in glory we’ll have new, incorruptible bodies, and that all the physical challenges of our lives will not be for naught. And knowing what Christ did for us on the cross, we’re also tested in this life to believe what Paul declared in Romans 8: 28 that all of the tests and trials we experience are for God’s good purpose.

My devotional friend, we who have and believe in the “end of the Book,” are tested by our trials in life, just as was Job, to believe that God is never going to leave us; … that our Lord always has His grand scheme in what we’re suffering; … and that in the end we’ll be rewarded for our faith. Job is one of our models for this; and Jesus is our ultimate model. I pray that we can take the tests of life and pass with flying colors so that we can give God the glory for what we go through, holding on the hope we have in our Lord.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, when we’re tested, help us to pass and come out shining Your light of faith for all to see You in the darkness of our suffering. Amen

2009 – Day 221.Aug 10 – Humble Submission

Passage of the Day: Job 1: 20 … Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.

My Journal for Today: Just one sentence from the first chapter of Job is provided today to help us reflect on the reaction of Job when he learned, in rapid succession, of the devastation to his life which had be wrought by Satan who had been allowed by God to do what we read having been done to Job. However, from this one sentence, when one studies the Hebrew text, as my devotional guide Chuck Swindoll has done, we see our Godly hero responding in a series of actions to indicate his absolute and humble submission to God’s will in what had transpired.

Job’s first two actions were to arise and tear his robe, which was the way in the Hebrew culture of the day to public announce a state of horrible grief or utter anguish. For anyone who has unexpectedly lost a close loved one, especially a child, that person would be able to empathize – somewhat - with the grief of Job’s loss. But to lose ten children in one perceived “act of God;” well, that would be hard for any of us to imagine the level of grief being expressed by Job by the tearing of his outer garment.

The next action on Job’s part was to shave his head, which was another cultural expression of grief. The hair for a Jewish man, usually grown long, was an expression of personal glory; and when one shaved his head it was a way of declaring that that one had lost all things dear to him; and most certainly that is what had happened to Job.

Job had lost almost all which was had been given to him by God. Really, only his wife remained from his immediate family; and all of God’s blessings from the Lord’s providence had been taken from Job. But the loss of ALL of his children in what had to have been perceived by Job as an “act of God,” was certainly a total devastation to all that Job would have considered his glory; and shaving his head was his way of expressing, “it’s all gone!”

But then we have the final action from Job; and this intentional action speaks volumes as to how Job surrendered to God responds as he sees God allowing such devastation into his life. And let me emphasize that this final action was a very personal and intentional choice which demonstrated the attitude of Job toward the God Whom had given him all which had been taken away on that day of horrors. Our hero, Job, falls to his face, prostrate before God, and worships. As Swindoll put it, “He [Job] doesn’t wallow and wail; … he worships.” And if one reads on, we see the extent of Job’s humble surrender in worship. But we’ll explore that tomorrow as you can read that Job refuses to choose to be angry with God.

At this moment, however, Job has chosen to worship God rather than ask “WHY” of his Lord. And I maintain that this response was way beyond the realm of natural. No, … this response – and it was an intentional response – was an expression of super-natural faith and trust in God. And I speculate, and believe, that God, who had given Satan the right to do what he did to Job, foreknew that He would be giving Job a super-dose of enabling grace.

And herein we learn one of the most powerful lessons which I was taught years ago by my mentor, a biblical lesson which I have burned into my memory and heart from the New Testament; and that is the lesson of 1st Cor. 10: 13. And I pray that you have memorized and internalize this truth … that ... “No temptation (also translated ‘test, tribulation, or trial’) has overtaken you except such is common to man; but God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able; but with the temptation will make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it (i.e.,, the trial, test, tribulation, or temptation).”

And we see that truth lived out and modeled here as Job is confronted with as an extreme of a trial or test as one could or would ever encounter. And his response was humble worship! Let me pray that this will be our response or reflex when we are tried in the fires of life.

My Prayer for Today: Lord, give us Your strength to allow us to worship You through any trial which comes our way. Amen