GOD
IS ALWAYS ENOUGH
Christianity is a life of tremendous
abiding joy, sometimes painful joy but nonetheless always abiding joy
At the moment I have a bad
back that is limiting me moving around freely. When I try to carry on as normal
I am in pain from sciatica, which increases the more, I try and I have to lie
down.
12 years ago I went through the same and it
lasted about a year. During that time I was at home a lot. In fact I spent more
time lying on the carpet than anywhere else. It was a humbling time. With 3
teenagers and a busy life I wanted to keep going but I couldn’t. However in God it was a very significant time
as I was forced to lie down and be still. I read scripture, I listened to
preaching, I worshipped and encountered a fresh intimacy with Jesus. So much so,
that in once sense I didn’t want it to end. Eventually after treatment, prayer
and a lot of waiting on God I was healed. Time alone with Him seemed more
precious than anything else.
So what about this time?
I have questions for God.
Why now?
I have just finished an exciting and
equipping year and am ready to GO!
Do I believe that you teach us things
through suffering when Jesus never told anyone that when they came to him to be
healed?
Why when so many have prayed for my back
have I not yet been healed?
Is there unconfessed sin in my life?
I have been waiting on God for his answer
to me but this I know…
He is good
He is with me all the time
He hears my cry
He has a plan that will not be interrupted
by anything that he has not ordained.
Yesterday God began to speak to me about steps
of faith through a sermon preached at my daughter’s church. Taken from the
story of Elijah and the widow in 1 Kings 17.
God fed Elijah through the ravens and the
brook and Elijah knew to go to God and to trust him to provide for him. Elijah
knew the faithfulness of God and God even used a poor widow to provide for him.
The widow however, when she ran out, despaired of life itself and didn’t run to
God. Yet God didn’t abandon her because of her unbelief. He showed her his
faithfulness through leading her to take steps of faith. Even whilst she took
those steps of faith things got worse. Her son fell ill and nearly died. The
preacher pointed out that our response in a difficult circumstance is often to
initially respond with faith and feel the blessing of God but then when there
are unexpected twists and turns we can respond in a variety of ways. First,
advising God of a solution which is thinking based on a dependence on our own
resources, followed by a more anxious cry for immediate deliverance followed by
our taking our eyes off God and falling into despair believing lies about
ourselves and about God and his nature to come through for us.
Hebrews 11:6 says that ‘Without faith it’s
impossible to please God’
If an action requires faith it probably
means there is something important missing, in this case it was food. In my
case it is healing.
I have been challenged! What is my
response? Is it faith in His goodness and faithfulness no matter what?
I was reading 1 Peter 1 this morning.
In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while,
if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of
your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ.
I am standing with several dear
friends who are also distressed by trials right now and it is hard, they are
battle weary which is why it is important that they know there are others
standing with them. I know that nothing that happens to us is wasted and God is
always in control and His ways are perfect.
Peter says we are joyful
primarily because of our hope in our great future
In this you greatly rejoice…you
are born again to a living hope!
That does not perish or fade that
is waiting for you in heaven. He is keeping both an inheritance for us and also
keeping us for that inheritance!
So no matter what we face we have
a hope of a great future
Verses 6-7 says 'if necessary' suggesting that the distresses themselves may have a part to play in our great hope...our
inheritance
So does God have a design to
increase our joy in our future inheritance through the distresses we go through
now?
Peter says in verse 6, "If
necessary, you have been distressed by various trials," meaning, "If
God deems it necessary."
Then there are those
two little words ‘so that’ meaning
there is a purpose.
If Peter is teaching
that the sovereign will of God governs all the distresses that happen to us
and, therefore the design in them is not ultimately the design of evil men or
the design of Satan but is a design of God then I can presume that they are designed
for my good
So that the proof of our faith, being more precious
than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to
result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
I know God does not
delight in pain for pain sake, I know that he could intervene because nothing
is impossible to him and to those who believe. So when he doesn’t intervene
either immediately or for some time what am I to think? Does he have higher
designs?
As I entrust myself to
a faithful creator I know that my life is like a canvas that represents my
redemptive story in his greater redemptive plan.
In God’s design my distresses
are brief and passing. Our distresses may last a little or a long time but when
compared to eternity as Peter writes in verse 6 they are just ‘for a little
while’
James also writes in
James 4:14: "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then
vanishes away. (Not sure I like being called just a vapor!!) But compared to
the length and greatness of the future God has planned for us, all the
distresses of this life are very little in deed
So how should I respond
in my distress?
Not in stoicism… yet content in
all circumstances
Pressing into the God who heals
all my diseases but who has not yet healed me of mine
Allowing God the opportunity to
stretch my faith and increase my knowledge of Him.
The Bible speaks continually
about us knowing Him. Recently I was thinking about friendship and about close
friendships. I was thinking that when you know someone really, really well, you
know how they tick, you know how they feel, their values and beliefs and you
know what pleases them. You don’t have to question them so much. You trust them
because you know them well. You feel relaxed with them.
You question people when you
don’t know them that well. It takes time to get to know someone well and to
build history with them. Such friendships are precious and remain even when
apart from another, even across continents and years.
It’s the same with God as we get
to know him more intimately we can rest in who he is and not doubt his goodness
whatever is going on. He is always ENOUGH… I think if anything, that is maybe
what God is teaching me…to be continued.
