The Answer

I went to church on Saturday and had an unexpected conversation. A man who I had seen the week before had come again. He was easily recognizable. He had a foreign accent and if you met him, you'd instantly know where he was from. Very obviously, he was disabled, but he was able to get around.

Talking to this man, I heard his gentle voice describe how he knew Jesus as his Savior, and that an accident and a doctor's mistakes gave him his handicaps.  The accident had actually killed him, and he had seen the gates of Heaven, but Jesus told him that he needed to come back to Earth.

"There must be some reason why I'm still here," he explained.  "It was so beautiful in Heaven, and I know there was no sorrow there, and life is so difficult now."

The doctor who tried to fix him made mistakes and left him crippled.  His father was his physical therapist, pushing him beyond his limits to become mobile again.

And then I realized I knew the answer to his unanswered question.

"I know why you had to come back to life," I replied.  "You see it's not enough that you just make it to heaven.  God wants us to enjoy Heaven to our fullest potential."  I had a hard time keeping back the tears.  "The Bible says that where our heart is, there our treasure is too.  Every bit of suffering we face here as Christians builds our treasure in Heaven."

"No one has ever explained it to me like that," he said. 

[Our fathers] disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.  (Heb 12:10-13 NIV)

Isn't that amazing!?  That's not the only place in scripture that tells us how this works:

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.... And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:23, 28 NIV)

The answer is right there, but it's hard to realize it when you're in the midst of suffering.  You can't seem to understand why you are in the situation you're in, and it feels as if it will last forever and that you can't get out of it, that you're powerless to work through the situation.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2Co 12:9-10 NIV)

Remember in Luke when Jesus quoted Isaiah in the synagogue (Luke 4:16-21)?  He read this:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. (Isa 61:1-3 NIV)

The sorrow and hardship we face here on Earth is temporary.  It may be a difficult road, but our reward will be beyond what we can imagine.  I'm not exaggerating!  It's easy to say that it's beyond what we imagine, but what God wants to give us in His Kingdom is too wonderful for words.  That's why Paul wrote this:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:6-7 NIV)

Could you imagine being a billionaire?  God's riches in Heaven for us who have accepted Jesus will be greater than that if we remain faithful to Him in adversity.

Let's pray that we would be able to endure hardship joyfully, whatever it may be, that we would be worthy of the great wealth God wants to bestow on us.  Myself, I have a difficult time with that joyfully part, but with prayer and faith, God will give us that joy and faithfulness.

Giving Thanks For Everything

Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(Eph 5:20 NIV)

Of all the things that are difficult to give up in this Christian life, I find that complaining is one of my most difficult vices.

We tend to look at various issues in our life as being good or bad, white or black, and often miss God's blessings in what seems to be a curse.  I think many of us have read that story where the person asks God why they had a bad day and God responds by saying that he basically saved their life and things could have been a lot worse.

Although I think this idea has good sentiments, I don't think it covers what I'm referring to very well.  First of all—what happens if it's worst-case scenarios that really happen, like losing a limb, losing a loved one, becoming homeless, having a divorce, becoming bankrupt, or something else?

For this blog post, I'm assuming that there is no wrong-doing on the part of the believer.  I also am not going to differentiate between persecution for Christianity and the suffering that comes with life.  Although there are different causes, I think they should be handled the same way. 

There are blessings even in the worst of circumstances.

It's so easy to get in a funk over bad circumstances.  One of my heroes, Corrie Ten Boom, once wrote how Betsie taught her that we should give thanks to God for everything—even the fleas.  It's kind of a long excerpt, so if you'd like, you can read it here.

The gist of the story was that while Corrie and her sister Betsie were in a Nazi concentration camp, they were transferred from one barrack to the other.  They had hoped that the second barrack would have better conditions than the first, but their hope was vain.  Instead, the barrack was flea-infested.  Betsie told Corrie that their solution was to give thanks to God, even for the fleas, but Corrie couldn't see why.  Weeks later, they found out that the reason the guards wouldn't come inside the barrack and why they had relative freedom to talk and share the Bible was because of the fleas.

There is a blessing hidden in even the worst of circumstances.  As hard as it may be to see it, that's what Betsie saw.

How the people of the Bible endured hardship

I am amazed at some of the things that I have read in the Bible.  Paul carried on about his persecution and then said, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness" (2 Cor. 11:30 NIV).  In Acts 16, he and his companion Silas were beaten and thrown in prison, and their response to this was to sing hymns in the middle of the night.  The author of Hebrews wrote, 

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.  Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.  You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.  So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  (Heb. 10:32-35)

In their perseverance through troubling times, these people had joy!  They weren't recorded as being complainers or whiners.  Instead it seems that God commended them for their joyful acceptance of these things.

It just doesn't make any sense.  Why would you praise God for getting the flu?  Why would you thank God that your child got a broken arm?  What is the good in the fact that your house has been infested with termites?

Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phi. 4:4-7)

God, through his Word, has promised that his peace will guard our hearts when we do these things.

Putting It into Practice  

I cannot admit that this is very easy to put into practice.  When everything in the world seems to be going against you, how do you do this?  Just take the first steps.  Find some things that are easier to thank God for and start there.  Eventually, it becomes easier to thank God for things that are pretty miserable.

I remember that this entire concept really hit me around Thanksgiving time.  Then in December, I got a really bad flu.  I was sick for four days with a temperature between 102-103.4°F.  It wasn't easy to thank God for the flu.  More things have happened in my life in the recent past and they are pretty hard to swallow.  I mean—can I really expect others to do what I say if I cannot do it myself?  Admittedly, this is a work in progress, but nonetheless, I haven't stopped trying.

God's transcendent peace is kind of a difficult idea to follow.  Having grown up in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches, it's often associated to a feeling.  God's peace is greater than just a feeling though.  God's peace can be there even if you don't feel it.

Could you imagine being at the first Passover in Egypt long ago?  Your family and friends have gathered into one house and everyone's eating a special feast.  You've painted blood—real blood—on your doorway and you can hear the cries of those who are losing their firstborn children.

God was meeting out judgment upon all Egypt and provided protection, peace if you will, for the Israelites.  No doubt many of them were worried and anxious about the night.  At the same time, they knew that God would protect them because they did what he told them to do.  The Passover represented Christ's death on the Cross nearly 1,500 years later, when God made peace with humanity.

Our peace isn't merely redemptive in nature, it's protective.  There's a reason that the Bible says that we should be bold and strong since God is for us.  Since God is for us, no one can be against us, for he holds eternity in his hand.  The Bible also states that our weapons and warfare are not physical, but spiritual.  God is bigger than all those awful things that happen to us in life.

So, I would posit that being able to thank God for all things is the true fruit of trusting in our God.  God's peace isn't necessarily something we can feel, but a state of fact that either we believe or doubt.  We should pray for those things that we're genuinely concerned about, but we must find a way to allow God to be sovereign in our hopes, dreams, catastrophes, and failures.

I am learning to trust God no matter what.

'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
and to take him at his word;
just to rest upon his promise,
and to know, "Thus saith the Lord." 

Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!
How I've proved him o'er and o'er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust his cleansing blood;
and in simple faith to plunge me
neath the healing, cleansing flood!
(Refrain)

Yes, 'tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
just from sin and self to cease;
just from Jesus simply taking
life and rest, and joy and peace.
(Refrain)

I'm so glad I learned to trust thee,
precious Jesus, Savior, friend;
and I know that thou art with me,
wilt be with me to the end.
(Refrain)

—Louisa M. R. Stead (c. 1850-1917)