There is the popularly told story of Horatio G. Spafford. He was a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago with a lovely family - his wife, Anna, and five children. He lost his younger son to pneumonia and also lost his business to the great Chicago fire in one year. Two years after all this, he lost his four daughters to a shipwreck. In all of these things, what came out of his lips were "it is well with my soul".
No one gets through life unscathed. Everyone deals with pain and suffering at some level. If someone insists they haven’t, they are either lying or in denial of the fact. And since God’s second most important command is for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, it behooves us to learn how to better comfort ourselves as well as our neighbors—both those we rub shoulders with us daily and also those who make up the lost and dying world we’re called to care for. By doing this, we open ourselves to a greater understanding of the fact that the scars we get in the journey of life will become the emblems of our victory. This will happen as long as we trust God to heal from every loss.
Let's take Job for example. Job, according to Job 1:5, was a good man. He was a God-fearing man who prayed for his family constantly and trusted in God until he was afflicted. In his state of affliction, one would expect that Job would totally forsake God and take out his trust in God. On the contrary, Job kept a positive mind. He didn't ask God why. He didn't complain nor sin against his maker as suggested by his wife and wife and friends. Instead, he prayed for his friends.
You may say that was in the old testament but then in the New Testament, Jesus showed the concept of humans and how deserving we could be right out of the water. Like in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that God throws fairness out the window to bless even the unrighteous. God's principle of fairness works like the principle of sowing and reaping (Matthew 5:43–45). In the Gospel of Luke, He explains that bad things do indeed happen to good people (Luke 13:1–5). In His parable about the workers in the vineyard, He also thoroughly deconstructs any notion that we can earn God’s blessings (Matthew 20:1–16). Job proves that “good” people, including people of faith, can and do experience horrific things through no particular fault of their own. Job 1:8 is also one of those passages that will suggest to you that while Job’s faith was truly strong, it did not safeguard him from hardship.
Yes we know that bad things do happen to good people, but what should be your(our) response? It is because of God’s constant character that we can trust Him in all things, even suffering, and declare, “Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). If we’ve known Him to be good in our joy, we can trust Him with our pain, when all seems lost, because He does not abandon His own (Psalm 9:10; Deuteronomy 31:6). The One who was without sin and blame suffered for us (2 Corinthians 5:20–21), and He knew we would suffer too (John 16:33). And in those moments of despair and pain, He promises to be near in our brokenness, “our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble” (Psalm 34:18; 46:1). In the words of Apostle Joshua Selman, ''you can truly sit in the midst of a storm and laugh being sponsored by the peace only God can give''. This is the height of total trust in God
Just like Job, and also just like Horatio G. Stafford, we should always put our hope in God when all is lost, we(you) shall overcome, it doesn't matter how long it will take, He(God) will always come through for you.When it seems there’s nothing left, there’s still hope.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Chorus:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul
Also, you must understand that trusting God is not done completely if at one time or the other you disobey His instructions. It is just as good as you saying God is a liar or not worthy to be trusted. Laying down everything and asking God to take control helps to position your heart that God is ever sufficient. Whatsoever God asks you to lay down for him, He has in abundance. So beyond saying "I trust you Lord", act it out. Obey God totally. Trusting is Obedience.
Read: How to Deal With Unwanted Pregnancy as an Unmarried Christian
Thanks for this. I really needed to hear this.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, in times like this, we need to get closer to God.
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