REFLECTING ON REFLECTIONS
Reflecting on yesterday's post, I could see where some
might have gotten the mistaken perception that I might have been suggesting
that difficulties - like the fire- only come to those
who choose not to live near the
Lord.
Not at all!
Trials come to all in this broken
world, and some trials are huge and painful beyond describing.
My point is that events are
never out of control. For those who place themselves under the loving
authority and care of their Heavenly Father, He permits trials to mold and
shape them in the likeness of His Son.
Proverbs 18:12 teaches that "humility comes before honor."
Like a loving earthly father, our heavenly Father "disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:10b). In tenderness He promises to be with us in our trials, with the purpose of bringing us through the crucible of humility, that we might come forth refined and purified. And those who have borne His discipline He will honor, that they may more perfectly serve and glorify Him.
Yet most certainly, "for the
moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant." But our
great confidence is that, "later it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:11).
So then, those who suffer - and all
will suffer sooner or later - are left to choose whether to try to tough it out
alone, with those who choose to live apart from God; or with those who put
themselves in His care, trusting in His pruposes for them, and His promise to do
them good.
Larry, thank you for your reflections and further reflections thereon. I'm in Haiti now and find numerous people in both camps you described: those who choose to "tough it out" apart from God and those who live by faith, entrusting themselves to His gracious care. Everyone suffers here: the neighborhoods of even the well-to-do are affected by dust, piles of rubble remaining from the earthquake, intermittent electrical power, polluted tap water and streets so rough we Westerners would regard them as impassable if we encountered them at home. The poor live in such squalid conditions that photos are inadequate to convey the miserable conditions; one needs all 5 God-given senses plus the fourth dimension (time) to begin to comprehend the degree of suffering they experience. Yet, a group of orphaned children who live with a guardian family in a bare, concrete structure on the edge of a debris- and garbage-strewn culvert exhibited such joy as they sang to us about their faith in Jesus. Many of us would consider such suffering intolerable if we were to experience it ourselves; such as these children have flourishing faith in the midst of it.
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