Quoted Bible text comes from The Passion Translation.
Does God care. Answer with a simple yes or no. I’m not surprised if nearly all of you thought, “Yes.” If God didn’t care, why would He send Jesus to offer Himself as sacrifice on our behalf? Why would He leave heaven and become a man? Why would He allow the suffering He went through? Of course--God cares.
But if I ask,, “Does God care for me?” it isn’t nearly as simple to answer. Oh, with our minds and lips it is easy to say, “Yes, He absolutely cares for me,” but when adversity comes do our actions contradict that? For example, let's say you came home from a doctor's appointment and were told that you could have a fatal heart attack any minute if you don’t have bypass surgery right away. That wasn’t what you expected to hear and the doctor’s words rattled your cage. I suppose you could think, “If God cares for me, why did this happen?”
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| Jackie after open heart surgery |
Your reaction to life’s unexpected challenges determines how they will affect you. You may not need bypass surgery but something will come along that you didn’t expect. How you react to that “something” determines if you get better or bitter.
To have the “better” experience, we must always remember that nothing on earth happens by chance. To those who say, “Oh, that was quite a coincidence,” I say, “There is only God.” We were all created by Him with a reason for our existence and a purpose for our being on earth. Somehow or other God makes it all work out while being sovereign and giving us free will at the same time. That doesn’t seem like a recipe for success to me but He has it figured out. I seldom understand what’s going on at the precise moment, but there’s been plenty of 20-20 hindsight.
Trees, mountains, oceans, deserts--all created for a purpose. Laughter, joy, happiness, likewise. But what about pain, suffering, sadness and loss? When there is pain in your life, it is because God permitted it. I won’t say He caused it, but He allows stuff into our lives that is sometimes painful--and none of us are exempt. I don’t always understand, but I know He loves me and has my best interest at all times and that all things, good or seemingly bad, are working for my eternal good.
God didn’t abandon us after bringing us into this life, and He won’t in the future. He willingly and with great love adopted each of us. We must remember that and pray for wisdom when our lives are turned upside down. We must see our pain-filled sometimes reality of life in light of His divine plan: Ask Him, “What does my current emotional state have to do with your purpose for my life?” James said in chapter 1: 2-5--My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up power within you to endure all things. And then as your endurance grows even stronger it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking. So, if you walk with thankful hearts and embrace your trials you grow so that there is “nothing lacking.” But if you get mad, irritated and question God’s care, you don’t do as well.
Suffering comes to us as a reminder that earth is not a paradise nor our home and that the life, truth, and love we crave won’t be found in their fullness here on earth but will be found when we one day wake up in heaven in the embrace of our Father.
To better understand suffering, look at Jesus as your model, though we cannot possibly compare our suffering to His. But let’s take a look at what He endured. Bodily suffering, mental anguish, disappointment, the betrayal of true friendship, the court’s perversion of fairness and justice and the violent separation from a mother’s love--all these Jesus took upon Himself knowingly and willingly. Then during the crucifixion, He uttered these words of triumph, “It is finished.” No more pain. No more sorrowful tears, no more personal attack. Hebrews 12:2 says it this way, “... We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God.” You might want to memorize that verse because you are headed in the same direction as He was--from earth to heaven!
All of that was the Father’s plan that Jesus embraced on the Cross, the plan He completed. That plan was fully revealed on the third day after His death when the Seed that fell to the ground bloomed into newness of life, when the mortal put on immortality.
On the road to Emmaus, Jesus met the disciples and said in Luke 24:25-26, “Why are you so thick-headed? Why do you find it so hard to believe every word the prophets have spoken? Wasn’t it necessary for Christ, the Messiah, to experience all these sufferings and then afterward to enter into his glory?” Suffering fit within God’s plan for Jesus and you and me. The suffering that Jesus endured gives you eternal life and escorted Jesus back to His throne in heaven. Your suffering is also preparing you for heaven.
God cares deeply about each of us when we are suffering or pain filled. We are to come to Him and ask for His help. Luke 11: 9-10 is a command from Jesus: “Ask and you’ll receive. Seek and you’ll discover. Knock on heaven’s door, and it will one day open for you. Every persistent person will get what he asks for. Every persistent seeker will discover what he needs. And everyone who knocks persistently will one day find an open door.”
That verse declares a very strong truth--be persistent. One of the reasons “every persistent person will get what he asks for” is this: As we embrace our trials, or as James said, “rejoice in them,” before long our persistent requests begin to change to complement God’s will so that our prayers become like an orchestra He is conducting. We know when to switch the tempo from 2/4 to 4/4, when to rest and when to move quick and lively because He is conducting His Church from the podium in heaven.
Alcohol, drugs, sex, food or whatever won’t remove suffering or heal diseases--they simply leave you feeling worse than ever and the problem hasn’t changed but probably been compounded and made even worse. Self gratification isn’t a cure either, though most Americans continue to go to that bottle of pain reliever. It is a cure people often employ when the trials, suffering and pain assault them. Unfortunately, self-gratification is like taking arsenic to cure a cold. For sure it will cure the cold but then there is the unwelcome consequence--you die.
We simultaneously live in two worlds, two realities: The seen and the unseen. God and His Kingdom are the unseen and everything you see with your eyes is the earth reality. If we put our trust in the seen, self-gratification makes good sense. But when we look at the unseen reality, “fixing our gaze on Jesus,” our reality then makes perfect sense--we see that God is in control and we are safe.
Here’s how the apostle Paul put it in 2 Cor 4:15-19: “...all things work for your enrichment so that more of God’s marvelous grace will spread to more and more people, resulting in an even greater increase of praise to God, bringing him even more glory! So no wonder we don’t give up. For even though our outer person gradually wears out, our inner being is renewed every single day. We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.
Finally, 1 Corinthians 10:13 shows us something to always remember:
We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.
No matter how lost you get, there is always a way of escape, a way home. God knows what we can handle and He allows it to be because He cares and loves us and wants our best. When confronted by suffering and pain, cry out to Him in prayer to give you all you need to fulfill His purpose. By doing that, you will see more open doors and more answered prayers because that is a prayer that complements His purposes and a prayer that will benefit your soul.
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