Anytime a tragedy occurs, ranging from personal tragedies to national tragedies, the question will arise, "Why did God let this happen?"
This is not a bad question. It's natural to wonder why the Creator of the universe who holds us in our hands would allow something so terrible to come into our lives. This is a question, I will admit, that I cannot answer. I do believe God has a reason, but any attempt to explain the reason does both a disservice to God, and to the one who is suffering. So, with that in mind, I can only offer the following...
In times of tragedy, we need to have faith in the place, in the plan, and most of all, in the Man.
We need to have faith in the place. In John 14, Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you." The fact is that God has prepared a place for us in His Kingdom where we will live forever, in His presence, without pain, without suffering, and without so much as the fear of pain and suffering. It will be a place of eternal peace and prosperity, where we can walk with our Lord, and be reunited with loved ones.
1 Timothy 4:17 tells us that "We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." The "them" with whom we get caught up together are those who have passed on before us, and we will all be with the Lord forever. Better days are ahead.
We need to have faith in the plan. Often during times of tragedy and hardship, someone will quote Romans 8:28, "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." These words can ring hollow without eternity in mind. After all, none of us want a bigger house, car, better job, or more luxuries. We want back what the tragedy took from us, whether it's our ability to walk, or the close presence of a loved one.
All things work together for our good because all things are working together to bring about God's plan. God's plan is our reunion with Him in His Kingdom. God is working His plan to get us all into His Kingdom together. Anything that comes into our lives comes for that purpose. Anytime tragedy enters our lives, we need to remember that God is still on His throne, and God is still bringing us into His Kingdom.
I cannot explain how or why, but I can affirm that God's plan is perfect, and is designed to bring us to that place of eternal blessing. We don't have to understand it, and we are not prohibited from grief. All God asks of us is that we trust Him through the process. As one of my church members often sings, "The God of the mountain, is the God of the valley. The God of the day, is still God in the night. The God of the good times, is still God in the hard times, the God of the day, is still God in the night."
We need to have faith in the Man. The man is Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The way to access God's Kingdom and plan is by faith in Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, removing the stain of sin, so that we can enter His Kingdom, if we know Him as Savior.
Furthermore, having trusted the Lord to save us based on His death, burial and resurrection, we can trust that the Lord, who now lives and sits at the right hand of the throne of God, pleads on our behalf daily before God the Father. Hebrews 7:25 says Jesus "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Christ is your advocate before God, and you have no greater advocate than Jesus Christ.
Because of Jesus, we can trust that God hears our prayers, and that He takes our situations into consideration as He executes His plan. We are not just pawns on His chess board.
On top of that, we can trust Jesus to be more than fair to us and our loved ones. The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. This means that the Lord pulls out all the stops when it comes to reaching folks with the Gospel. Furthermore, when it comes to our loved ones who have passed on before us, the Bible says "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." It's precious, because it represents the physical reunion of God with His people. He gets to bring us back into His presence.
In all things, God is good. Things are not always good, but God is always good. God is good all the time, and in all times God is good.
If you are suffering right now, these words may seem hollow. That's okay. Grief was never banned in scripture, in fact, it was encouraged, as the Old Testament saints took 10 full days to grieve (that's 10 days where they did nothing but grieve, no work, no commitments, just mourning.)
My only hope is that as that dark cloud passes, you can be brought back into God's presence by remembering to trust in His place, His plan, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. May God bless you in all things.
Showing posts with label discouragement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label discouragement. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2016
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Profiting with God
No one disputes the fact that the Christian life comes with troubles. People ridicule your faith, some believers face persecution, and oftentimes we fore go personal pleasure, ambition or advancement in favor of something God has called us to do. While we make these sacrifices and observe people in the world living it up for themselves and enjoying life, it can become easy to be discouraged, or to blame God for all of our sufferings and problems.
That was the situation Job was in. He was perfect and upright, one who feared God and eschewed evil (Job 1:1), yet God allowed him to suffer when his livelihood was wiped out and his children killed. As Job lamented about these problems during his speeches, he accepted a premise that God will allow the righteous to suffer for no cause, and that God doesn't have a special regard for the righteous. Now, the Bible says that Job neither sinned nor charged God foolishly, but Job did misunderstand what God was doing.
Enter Elihu, a young man who quietly listened to Job lament his suffering, and his friends accuse him of bringing his suffering on himself. After the elderly men have completed their thoughts, Elihu speaks up, and says that Job goes in the company of those who work iniquity and walks with wicked men, because he said, "It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. (Job 34:9)"
Job's words were spoken out of intense anguish, suffering and mourning, but sadly, I think many of us have accepted the same premise - If you follow God, you will have no profit on this Earth. It'll be non-stop suffering and failure till you die, then you get your reward.
It's a discouraging premise, and one that is seemingly validated when you see people who leave the church get everything they wanted. It seems to be validated when you do massive amounts of outreach and evangelism, and see people reject the message of the Bible in favor of more entertaining venues. It seems to be validated when you strive to honor and glorify God the best you know how, and nothing seems to come from it.
With that discouragement in mind, let's look to Elihu's encouraging words.
In the case of Job, (and Job didn't understand what was happening at this point), God was working a bigger picture. He was accomplishing another major victory over Satan, while simultaneously strengthening Job and bringing him closer to Himself. Job finally got it in Job 42:5-6.
In our cases, God allows our suffering, but it is never without purpose, and it is never without reward. If we are obedient, faithful, and unwavering in our trust of the Lord, we'll see the fruit of our labor and suffering, and we'll see God bless us mightily. Or as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
So, do not accept the premise that life is nothing but suffering. Do not accept the premise that you can not make a difference. Do not accept the premise that people will no longer accept the Gospel, or that no one wants to hear the Word of God, and do not accept the premise that your church will never see better days.
Continue to labor for the Lord. He will bless you.
That was the situation Job was in. He was perfect and upright, one who feared God and eschewed evil (Job 1:1), yet God allowed him to suffer when his livelihood was wiped out and his children killed. As Job lamented about these problems during his speeches, he accepted a premise that God will allow the righteous to suffer for no cause, and that God doesn't have a special regard for the righteous. Now, the Bible says that Job neither sinned nor charged God foolishly, but Job did misunderstand what God was doing.
Enter Elihu, a young man who quietly listened to Job lament his suffering, and his friends accuse him of bringing his suffering on himself. After the elderly men have completed their thoughts, Elihu speaks up, and says that Job goes in the company of those who work iniquity and walks with wicked men, because he said, "It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God. (Job 34:9)"
Job's words were spoken out of intense anguish, suffering and mourning, but sadly, I think many of us have accepted the same premise - If you follow God, you will have no profit on this Earth. It'll be non-stop suffering and failure till you die, then you get your reward.
It's a discouraging premise, and one that is seemingly validated when you see people who leave the church get everything they wanted. It seems to be validated when you do massive amounts of outreach and evangelism, and see people reject the message of the Bible in favor of more entertaining venues. It seems to be validated when you strive to honor and glorify God the best you know how, and nothing seems to come from it.
With that discouragement in mind, let's look to Elihu's encouraging words.
Job 34:10-12 Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding: far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity. 11 For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways. 12 Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.For God to constantly bring His people into captivity and force them into non-stop suffering and discouragement, He would have to deal wickedly with His people. However, Elihu says that goes against God's holy, righteous and just nature. God allows suffering, but God always rewards His people.
In the case of Job, (and Job didn't understand what was happening at this point), God was working a bigger picture. He was accomplishing another major victory over Satan, while simultaneously strengthening Job and bringing him closer to Himself. Job finally got it in Job 42:5-6.
In our cases, God allows our suffering, but it is never without purpose, and it is never without reward. If we are obedient, faithful, and unwavering in our trust of the Lord, we'll see the fruit of our labor and suffering, and we'll see God bless us mightily. Or as Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9, "And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
So, do not accept the premise that life is nothing but suffering. Do not accept the premise that you can not make a difference. Do not accept the premise that people will no longer accept the Gospel, or that no one wants to hear the Word of God, and do not accept the premise that your church will never see better days.
Continue to labor for the Lord. He will bless you.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Don't Give Up!
Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Let's face it... ministry can be downright discouraging these days. While there are churches that are growing and bursting at the seams, chances are you see empty pews when you stand behind the pulpit on Sunday morning.
Not only that, but it seems that no one is interested in hearing about God's salvation when you go out door-knocking. There have probably been days that you felt like the prophet Jeremiah, who preached his entire ministry without a convert.
Lack of "results" can have any preacher questioning his call, his methods, and questioning if he is where God wants him. Don't be discouraged.
For the past several weeks, a member of Grace Pointe and I have been knocking doors in Northwest Brownwood. The vast majority of these doors have gone unanswered, others tell us they are not interested, some don't want to hear our message and some have even refused to take our tracts. One rather famous exchange went like this:
GP Member: Sir, would you like to know about Heaven?
Resident: No. (slams door shut.)
GP Member: Wow. Times are hard when they don't want to hear about Heaven.
Leland: Actually, times aren't hard enough.
Quitting our mission of canvassing Brownwood was never an option, though we did discuss the fact that our job was to merely share the Word. That's when we had a break-through day last week.
We were invited inside twice, had four quality conversations about Christ, and even had two men pray. While their prayers stopped short of "asking Jesus into their hearts," we feel that they were made more aware of the reality of God, His coming judgment, and the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Besides, the transaction of salvation is between them and the Lord, not between us and them.
One thing I have noticed is that those who are giving thought to eternity are highly interested in what God has to say through His word. Study after study and survey after survey tells us that people are abandoning organized religion in droves. While there may be a mass exodus of people from churches, I don't think it's the organization that they are leaving. They are not leaving church, per se, they are leaving empty religion.
To put it another way, they are not rejecting the idea of church, they are rejecting the churches of which they have been a part. Why? Most will share stories of empty traditional arguments, or hypocritical pastors and leaders, some even point out doctrinal error (what the pastor teaches doesn't match up with what their Bible says.) So, to these people, church isn't bad, they just haven't found a good church. You see, it's not the church they are abandoning. They are setting aside a church that has abandoned God.
The question has often been posed, "Has the church become irrelevant?" If the church has abandoned God's word, or the Gospel, it has. This empty establishment is being left behind in the dust, despite its efforts at marketing, contemporary worship, reducing preaching (ironically), and increasing its appeal to "seekers."
I submit that the vast majority of churches have abandoned God's word in favor of crafting a message and looking for validation in God's word. Many pastors have left expository preaching for topical preaching. Often, these topics and sermons are crafted entirely in the mind of the preacher before God's word is even consulted. An example might be using Proverbs 29:18 to promote building and expansion programs. I once heard a preacher preach on Christ's prayer in the Garden while the disciples slept. His main point was that we need to be better friends to each other than the disciples were to Christ. (The theme here had more to do with Christ preparing to go to the cross than with the sleeping disciples.)
The modern "seeker" isn't looking for a rock concert with a how-to sermon attached to the end of it. The "seeker" is seeking God's word and its counsel. The church and preacher that are able to exegete God's word and teach what it says will be the church that is successful in the coming years. The American people have had their fill of cattle excrement over the past couple of generations. Substance will now prevail.
So, don't seek to convey what you think or say, and don't try to teach what other great preachers have taught. Preach the word and teach what God has to say. It will bear results. I'm not promising that you'll have a Billy Graham style crusade, but you will see the Word work in the lives of those who listen, and you will see God move. After all is said and done, isn't that really what it is about?
Let's face it... ministry can be downright discouraging these days. While there are churches that are growing and bursting at the seams, chances are you see empty pews when you stand behind the pulpit on Sunday morning.
Not only that, but it seems that no one is interested in hearing about God's salvation when you go out door-knocking. There have probably been days that you felt like the prophet Jeremiah, who preached his entire ministry without a convert.
Lack of "results" can have any preacher questioning his call, his methods, and questioning if he is where God wants him. Don't be discouraged.
For the past several weeks, a member of Grace Pointe and I have been knocking doors in Northwest Brownwood. The vast majority of these doors have gone unanswered, others tell us they are not interested, some don't want to hear our message and some have even refused to take our tracts. One rather famous exchange went like this:
GP Member: Sir, would you like to know about Heaven?
Resident: No. (slams door shut.)
GP Member: Wow. Times are hard when they don't want to hear about Heaven.
Leland: Actually, times aren't hard enough.
Quitting our mission of canvassing Brownwood was never an option, though we did discuss the fact that our job was to merely share the Word. That's when we had a break-through day last week.
We were invited inside twice, had four quality conversations about Christ, and even had two men pray. While their prayers stopped short of "asking Jesus into their hearts," we feel that they were made more aware of the reality of God, His coming judgment, and the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Besides, the transaction of salvation is between them and the Lord, not between us and them.
One thing I have noticed is that those who are giving thought to eternity are highly interested in what God has to say through His word. Study after study and survey after survey tells us that people are abandoning organized religion in droves. While there may be a mass exodus of people from churches, I don't think it's the organization that they are leaving. They are not leaving church, per se, they are leaving empty religion.
To put it another way, they are not rejecting the idea of church, they are rejecting the churches of which they have been a part. Why? Most will share stories of empty traditional arguments, or hypocritical pastors and leaders, some even point out doctrinal error (what the pastor teaches doesn't match up with what their Bible says.) So, to these people, church isn't bad, they just haven't found a good church. You see, it's not the church they are abandoning. They are setting aside a church that has abandoned God.
The question has often been posed, "Has the church become irrelevant?" If the church has abandoned God's word, or the Gospel, it has. This empty establishment is being left behind in the dust, despite its efforts at marketing, contemporary worship, reducing preaching (ironically), and increasing its appeal to "seekers."
I submit that the vast majority of churches have abandoned God's word in favor of crafting a message and looking for validation in God's word. Many pastors have left expository preaching for topical preaching. Often, these topics and sermons are crafted entirely in the mind of the preacher before God's word is even consulted. An example might be using Proverbs 29:18 to promote building and expansion programs. I once heard a preacher preach on Christ's prayer in the Garden while the disciples slept. His main point was that we need to be better friends to each other than the disciples were to Christ. (The theme here had more to do with Christ preparing to go to the cross than with the sleeping disciples.)
The modern "seeker" isn't looking for a rock concert with a how-to sermon attached to the end of it. The "seeker" is seeking God's word and its counsel. The church and preacher that are able to exegete God's word and teach what it says will be the church that is successful in the coming years. The American people have had their fill of cattle excrement over the past couple of generations. Substance will now prevail.
So, don't seek to convey what you think or say, and don't try to teach what other great preachers have taught. Preach the word and teach what God has to say. It will bear results. I'm not promising that you'll have a Billy Graham style crusade, but you will see the Word work in the lives of those who listen, and you will see God move. After all is said and done, isn't that really what it is about?
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