To the average onlooker at the time, the crucifixion of Christ must've appeared to be an epic failure. That one so obviously & outwardly powerful not to mention driven by the Spirit of God should die in such a horrific & utterly humiliating way must have appeared to them to be the heighth of utter foolishness if not the confirmation that He was no more the Son of God in reality than they were. And yet the bible portrays a completely different story. The New Testament for example teaches that it was the triumph of God on behalf of sinners that Christ should die in this way. And yet, in spite of their master's teaching & continual warnings that these things must happen in order for the covenantal promise of God to be fulfilled, the disciples went away discouraged & dismayed, nearly convinced that the enemies of Christ had actually defeated him.
This begs the question: are we any different from them? When faced with tragedy & hardship, rejection & humiliation how do we respond? As we look at the world & observe the different Inhumanities & cruelties, oppression & violence of modern society what do we see? Do we see the hand of God at work inspite of human suffering or suppose that he is hiding somewhere in Heaven? Do we really believe there is a higher purpose in tragedy or do we just say that to console our own bitter wondering soul? Do we profess to believe that Christ has overcome the world and then harbor hidden unbelief? Do we make bold professions of faith and then warm ourselves by the enemie's fire? You bet we do!
So why do we condemn the actions of the disciples? Why do we think if we had been there instead of them that the situation would've turned out any better, that we would've acted any less afraid or dismayed by the circumstances? If we are honest with ourselves, if we take a good hard look in the mirror of truth and agree with what we see there, we will admit this fact. We are just like them because we share the very same nature. Although we have been blessed by God to be sealed with His Holy Spirit we are still very much human. We neither see like God nor act like God because the truth is even though we are filled with the Spirit of God we are still not Him. And yet in spite of this obvious glaring reality we still tend to act like we are.
We make decisions like we are God and we talk to others & treat them like we are God simply because we have His Spirit. We think that because we are one with Him or sealed by His Spirit that we are free from the deception or manipulation of our greedy covetous sinful little hearts. We actually think that we can perceive & act without the distortion of sin or self to prevent us from seeing clearly or acting rightly, which it turns out is the very manifestation of the problem. We are still blinded by pride deceived by selfish ambition and manipulated by worldly desires. And it is for that reason that Paul repeatedly admonished his readers to "put off the old man with his deeds". Because he is still very much there in all of us in all of his carnal glory.
Now that's not say we are not really saved or there is not a difference between the former way we lived outside of Christ and the way we do now in Him. There is! There most certainly is. BUT that is to say we should not fool ourselves into thinking we can think or act independently of the flesh with its bodily appetites & mindsets, as though to walk in the spirit was to be entirely free from the presence of sin and death. That is simply not the case. And again Paul makes that very clear. Now the primary way that my own "old man" rears it's ugly face is the natural & incessant way I decide to rely upon myself when I am faced with a conflict or a trial.
Instead of coming before God in prayer with the intention of relying on him, I come with my list of plans and ask that he co-sign them. Instead of opening the word to hear the voice of God speak to me I come to guird myself for the day by going through the "devotion motions". That is to say my devotional time becomes a means to an end instead of an end in itself. I use it to get through the day instead of letting it get through to me (if you'll pardon the bumper sticker cliche). And before I know it I've lost sight of the the Holy Spirit. I'm beginning to lose sight of Christ and have begun the slow march away from the Father.
I begin instead to rely on my own intellect my various experiences with God or simply grace in the abstract. And I proceed with the day not even realizing that I have distanced myself from the source of my life and my strength (so very cunning is the heart of man!). And before I know it along comes a trial unexpectedly, to destroy me...or so I thought. Because the truth is behind the scenes of that trial waiting very patiently, unbeknownst to me, is the very tender very practical merciful hand of God waiting to teach me a very valuable lesson about the reality of my deceptive heart: the need for me to rely upon His grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ instead of my own intellect or devices. It is a lesson I have learned many times before, one that I am sure I will have to learn for many years to come.
You see, the truth is really this: I do not actually understand the all encompassing life long value of the cross of Christ or my need for daily salvation through it like I should. And because of that I constantly fail to rely upon its power and it's benefit like I should in every single situation...especially the worst ones. So God in his wisdom allows me to do my own thing because he knows like a good father does...I am going to hurt myself and come running sometimes screaming back to Him. Now the question I have to ask is: does it have to be this way ALL the time? And the resounding answer from scripture and from life is...yes...and yet at the same time no.
Yes we are ALL going to fail in our walk as Christians and our lives as humans A LOT. But it doesn't have to be so painful every time that we do. The more that we rely upon ourselves and our own methods, the less we rely upon God's Spirit & ignore the teaching of God's word the more it is going to hurt. And that is a fact. But it doesn't have to be that way all the time. The more that we grow in our dependence upon God, His Spirit & His word the less we will want to rely upon ourselves and our own devices, the more quickly we will suspect the deceptions of our heart and flee to the source of our life and our strength. But again the question is: How do we do that? The answer if I may be so bold as to say is as always very simple in truth but very difficult in reality.
We need to return to the life of Christ and see it for what it actually is according to the word of God. We need to recognize the profound dependence he had upon the Spirit of God in every day practice. We need to see him as more than just the example we should all appropriate on our own. We need to see him as the final product of God's work in our hearts & lives by the Spirit of God in sanctification. You see by default we all perceive him as a glorious example of what we can become with practice. But the truth is Christ in his humanity is the revelation of what God created us to be to begin with, the revelation of what God is making us into day by day in our relationship with Him, situation by situation, moment by moment, decision by decision. Think about that for just a moment. How often do we come to the life of Christ to appropriate it as an example instead of coming in order to be changed by it from the inside out by the tender hand of God in the Spirit? Be honest. For me the answer is all too often and always to my own detriment and hurt.
But that's not why the record of God's work in Christ was given to us in the gospels. We are not supposed to come to them like Pharisees appropriating their content for our own devices. We were meant to come to the life of Christ as children in humility with the hope that His humiliation & dependence might be worked in us to the point where the reality of it becomes so apparent to every person we come in contact with that they begin to glorify God and be conformed to the image of Christ with us. The salvation we experience in the Gospel was always meant to be a God ordained & God directed work on behalf of the believer. And it is no different where the sanctification of the saint is concerned.
Our sanctification like our initial salvation is rooted in the work of God on our behalf and our dependence on it. And that is where we fail..every time. You see instead of coming to the word of God (and by extension God Himself) in humility with the intention to submit & be changed, we come to use & create methods to accomplish our own personal victories. Right out of the gate we are relying on ourselves and not the Spirit of God. We see our weakness and inadequacies as something to overcome not something to drive us to the cross of Christ. And we are overcome instead, repeatedly & brutally by our own hands because we failed to see with the eyes of faith what is really going on.
We came in salvation to the cross of Christ with nothing valuable or worthy to offer. But now we come with spiritual pride like prize winning stallions to win a race for him. Sadly we have forgotten what we really are. And if you haven't then I surely have... time and time again. And time and time again I have been led by the Spirit of God to the place of remembering this simple fact: I need him. He doesnt need me. He never needed me. He wanted me. He loves me, often in spite of me. He cares about me. I have nothing to offer him, not now not ever...only me, spiritually often morally bankrupt self centered, self important arrogant me. He is everything. On my own I am nothing.
He gave everything for me in Christ. I have given him very little if anything. I doubt very much that I ever will. He chose to save me and fill me and bless me and use me and always for my own benefit. I owe him everything. He owes me nothing. So why do I rely upon myself and forget the gospel? The answer again is very simple. I am human. And he knows it. He is not mad at me. I am. He does not condemn me. I do. He paid the penalty I deserve for my sin and absorbed all my just condemnation. He loves me now. He sees me in Christ as what I will become in spite of what I am in spite of what I repeatedly do. So where do I go from here? Where do we any of us in Christ go from here when we only choose to rely upon ourselves and not the Holy Spirit?
We return again to Christ. We repent of our unbelief and our pride. We ask for the humility to see ourselves for what we are, and return to the cross of Christ to be conformed to the image of its heavenly victim. We ask for the grace to rely upon the word of God, to obey its precepts as best we can. We trust that God will lead us as He wills to, according to His nature & His timing. We remember that at some point we will fail again and have to return again to the cross of Christ. We rest in the fact that it's okay to do so, that His power is made perfect in our weakness when we do, that it's for this very reason that Christ did more than just die in our place. He also lived in our place too. He was the perfect obedient child and servant we were created to be, that we can never be on our own. And He did it all in our place too so we can be free to fail when we do, so we can get back up again and try again in the freedom that we are loved either way because of Him.
If you are like me then you can never hear this enough. You are happy to be reminded, grateful that God is not offended when we need to hear it again and repent. Brother or sister if I can leave you with one thing it's this: we were created to depend on the Living God, not rely on ourselves. We were saved by His Son's finished work so we would rely on the leading of His Holy Spirit. There is no shame in being led, no shame in being small or weak or dependent on the power of God. It is an honor to rely upon the Holy Spirit, to be a fool in the eyes of the world or even our peers. It is to the glory of God that we experience adversity and trust Him in it. To be so & do so is to fellowship with the Son of God in His own earthly travail and human trials. It is in essence to begin to be conformed to the image of the One who loved us & saved us. And that is more valuable than anything we could offer, more valuable than anything we might bring to the table.
And we would do well to remember that as His precious patient pilgrims.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Redemptive Reality in Human Suffering
Over the course of my life I have come to accept that loneliness is a part of life. It is the inevitable consequence of living in a fallen world corrupted by sin that we are going to suffer bouts of loneliness from time to time. But it's one thing to feel the temporary pang of loneliness & another thing to feel the soul crushing weight of alienation that comes from real suffering. Where the one is usually just a matter of being alive the other is the product of an ongoing trial. Where the one can feel extremely painful in the moment but soon passes the other can be utterly devastating and only seems to stay. Where time seems to heal the one, it only worsens the other. And so it goes for the human heart where loneliness is concerned.
Now up until recently I had only ever experienced the first kind of loneliness. It is only in the last few months of watching my wife suffer from cancer & chemo that I've begun to feel the weight of that other soul crushing loneliness I described before. And while I haven't resigned myself to despair just yet, I have been tempted to do so at times, even as a believer in Christ. But that's not why I'm writing this. Neither is the point to boast or make some speech about how "I pulled myself up by the spiritual boot straps" nor is it to complain about how difficult our life is now that my wife has cancer. The world is filled with those sorts of statements. I don't think it would do any good to make another. No. I have written for a different purpose entirely, one I hope will be more of a benefit to you than that.
I want to share with you an unshakable reality that has literally sustained me through the worst trial of my life. It is a reality that defies the worst kinds of loneliness alienation & suffering any trial in this life can bring, a reality that will not be silenced by or falter in any prolonged season of hardship. It is a living truth that can only benefit the believer if they are willing to accept it & base their whole lives around it. It is a revelation for every son & daughter in Christ to hold on to if they will only learn to accept it.
Now I'd be lying if I said I fully comprehend this reality myself or even appropriate it as much as I need to. That just isn't the truth. And I know it. I even suspect I’m writing this to remind myself more than anything of what I already know and need to hear. (the Holy Spirit has a funny way of speaking to me through my own mouth at times...probably because He knows that's when I'm REALLY listening). Even so I hope you'll take the time to read this. You never know…you might just need to hear it yourself.
And this is what I know. This is what I've learned over the past few months watching my wife endure her physical suffering. The heart wasn't created to endure so much pain. It wasn't created to suffer anxiety & sadness, heartache & sorrow, any more than it was created to suffer the pangs of death. All of these are the natural consequences of the curse, the product of living in a fallen world corrupted by sin. We weren't created to suffer the slings and arrows of pain & death but to have life and that more abundantly.
Death (and everything else that goes with it) is the manifestation of the curse, unnatural now to the naturally created order. But that's not to say the All-knowing All-powerful All-Wise Creator of the universe did not create us with these realities in mind. That simply isn't true either & the Bible makes that plain. Our God knew full well what we would become when He made us and created us anyway. It's not that our pain is a surprise to Him or something He must overcome to work His purpose in us. It is something that while unnatural to us still exists to bring Him glory for our incomprehensible benefit. And it is important that we see that especially if we are suffering or watching someone else we love enduring suffering.
You see if we aren't careful and we do not remember what God has revealed to us in the scripture about our suffering we can easily slip into a never ending cycle of self pity, isolation & loneliness to our further detriment & pain. That’s because it's now the natural disposition of our heart (because of sin) to go inward when we are hurting instead of reaching out to the one who can help us. And the devil knows this. He knows that we were created with an outward focus in mind (to love our God & other people...for our benefit & for theirs).
He knows that it's our natural bend now to only think of our self when we are sad, to go hopelessly & helplessly inward when we are in pain, to withdraw from everyone we know & love (even the One who loved us & saved us) to our harm. That is why he presses so hard against us in our thoughts when we are hurting. That is why he's so relentless in our pain. He knows if he can draw our attention away from those who love us & the One who saved us, he can lead us away into a never ending cycle of self-imposed torment from which we cannot escape on our own even if we try. And it is his delight to hurt us.
And He does... all the time...at least that has been my personal experience as of late. But where does that leave us? What do we do having been sucked in? How do we escape the inescapable vortex our sadness creates (and the devil exploits) in our tragedy which only causes us more pain, pushing us further into ourselves? How do we escape the inevitable dilemma of this unending cycle? The answer I have found in my own situation is really quite simple. I must return to the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in scripture & the hope that is promised to me there in it.
More specifically I must revisit the person & work of Jesus Christ on my behalf in redemption. By saturating my heart & mind with the truth of the Gospel & more importantly what Jesus suffered on my behalf, I am confronted with the reality of the love of God in Christ, the truth that because He has conquered the grave in my place even my pain has a purpose. My suffering is not in vain because it is working on my behalf to perfect in me a lasting character, the character of the One who saved me beating the devil at his own game, redirecting my focus. Let me explain.
As I begin to turn my attention away from myself & the problems I face toward the Love of God in Christ I am inevitably overcome by the reality of everything He has done for me on my behalf. I am humbled by the way He lowered himself, laying down His life for my sake. I am awed by the pain he experienced for me dying in my place so I can be free. I am grateful for the living hope I now have in Him being reconciled to the Father in His name and filled with His Spirit. Before I know it, the gospel has already begun to refocus my heart & mind on the love of God in Christ.
And the product of that change of focus is a change of heart. And I begin to see my own suffering in the light of His. I begin to feel the weight of what He did in my place instead of the weight of my pain. And I am humbled once again. So that now where all I could think about before was my own terrible circumstance now by the grace of God I begin to think of the One who saved me & the conditions he endured to redeem me. And now I'm thinking about my family & all of the people God has given me to reach out to me in our trial. And I am grateful for the love His body has lavished on us in His name.
But it doesn't just stop there. Because as soon as the revelation of the Gospel has taken root in my heart & manifested itself in my life, the Spirit of God takes me even deeper, further into the mysteries of God in Christ than I've ever been before. And now I'm thinking about our resurrected bodies, meditating on the promise of a newly restored earth, and what it will be like to worship God for all eternity in His very presence without sin or self to distract me. I realize I have nothing to give him for all of this and I am only speechless. I remember that to suffer is to fellowship with the suffering savior, to worship in suffering is an honor the angels don't get to have. And before I know it I'm humbled again by the privilege I get to share in the gospel.
Now a few things before I continue. FIRST: It is not a one-time thing, this sort of gospel redirection. It happens over a lifetime of walking with God and is no small matter of discipline & persistence. Since human pain is inevitable & constant, life hard & the heart cruel I must daily have my mind realigned to the reality of it. I must daily return and be confronted by it no matter how I feel or what I am going through at the moment. And SECOND: There is nothing inherently wrong with feeling pain or being lonely in the midst of a trial. That is not the point of what I'm saying at all. It is no more spiritual to act like we have everything together in a trial than it is to quote bible verses like they were some kind of spiritual badge of accomplishment when we are suffering.
No the point that I am trying to make is that, where suffering is concerned, it is always best for believers in Christ to have a redemptive perspective of reality no matter what they are going through. And since we do not naturally have this perspective (because of sin & self) we must constantly seek to be confronted by it daily until it finally begins to sink in and change the way we think. And if anyone other than Christ understood that it was the Apostle Paul himself. And His writings only prove it.
Consider the fact that he always began his letters with the gospel indicative (what God has already done for us & still doing in Christ) before he moved on to the central imperative (what our lives should look like if we really believe it). Perhaps that's even why he chose to answer the carnal challenges of the Corinthian church by redirecting their attention to the eternal perspective. Instead of gloating over some superficial spiritual work he had accomplished on his own he chose to share the testimony of his own humiliation & suffering with them and the lesson God gave to him in it. What better way to silence the carnal accusations of the flesh than to repeat the words of Christ to Him by the Spirit?
What better way to pull US out of our selves, to ground us in the gospel & deliver us from Satan in our own trials than to hear the words of Christ to Paul in his own suffering? (I am humbled as I write this, because even now I am reminded why I started writing in the first place. I need to hear this. Oh how I need to hear this...every single day & in every single way as often as I can! I need to hear this).
"[God's] grace is sufficient (for me). [His] power is made perfect in [my] weakness." -2 Cor. 12:9
In my loneliness & tiredness when I am doubting & afraid, when the woman I love more than life itself begins to grow weak & lose her hair from the chemo, when my children begin to fuss because I cannot give them all of me every moment of the day, when I feel alone, like no one understands me or feel like a hollow empty shell, His grace is always sufficient for me. Always. Sufficient. For me.
Like the Corinthian church I need to hear this, to be confronted with the reality of it daily especially in my difficulty. I need to be confronted with the single truth that any suffering I might experience in this life cannot be compared with the suffering the Son of God endured in my place. I need to be reminded that there is no greater love than the love He poured out for me in His suffering. I need to remember that the love of God extends beyond my initial salvation & provides me a living hope that will pull me out of my sadness, if I am only willing to believe it.
I need to be saturated with Jesus, who He is and what He gave for me. And if you are anything like me then you must need that too. And I haven't just written for me today. And you haven't read this in vain.
Saints of God please listen to me. If we are willing to see it for what it is in the light of our Redemption, our suffering is really the blessing of God to break us, to remake us & renew us, to change us & to grow us, to ground us & to free us, to ultimately reveal to us the glorious inheritance God has given us, His patient pilgrims through the Gospel of our salvation in Christ Jesus which is only for our benefit. And that is a reality that will sustain us if we are only willing to believe it.
Now up until recently I had only ever experienced the first kind of loneliness. It is only in the last few months of watching my wife suffer from cancer & chemo that I've begun to feel the weight of that other soul crushing loneliness I described before. And while I haven't resigned myself to despair just yet, I have been tempted to do so at times, even as a believer in Christ. But that's not why I'm writing this. Neither is the point to boast or make some speech about how "I pulled myself up by the spiritual boot straps" nor is it to complain about how difficult our life is now that my wife has cancer. The world is filled with those sorts of statements. I don't think it would do any good to make another. No. I have written for a different purpose entirely, one I hope will be more of a benefit to you than that.
I want to share with you an unshakable reality that has literally sustained me through the worst trial of my life. It is a reality that defies the worst kinds of loneliness alienation & suffering any trial in this life can bring, a reality that will not be silenced by or falter in any prolonged season of hardship. It is a living truth that can only benefit the believer if they are willing to accept it & base their whole lives around it. It is a revelation for every son & daughter in Christ to hold on to if they will only learn to accept it.
Now I'd be lying if I said I fully comprehend this reality myself or even appropriate it as much as I need to. That just isn't the truth. And I know it. I even suspect I’m writing this to remind myself more than anything of what I already know and need to hear. (the Holy Spirit has a funny way of speaking to me through my own mouth at times...probably because He knows that's when I'm REALLY listening). Even so I hope you'll take the time to read this. You never know…you might just need to hear it yourself.
And this is what I know. This is what I've learned over the past few months watching my wife endure her physical suffering. The heart wasn't created to endure so much pain. It wasn't created to suffer anxiety & sadness, heartache & sorrow, any more than it was created to suffer the pangs of death. All of these are the natural consequences of the curse, the product of living in a fallen world corrupted by sin. We weren't created to suffer the slings and arrows of pain & death but to have life and that more abundantly.
Death (and everything else that goes with it) is the manifestation of the curse, unnatural now to the naturally created order. But that's not to say the All-knowing All-powerful All-Wise Creator of the universe did not create us with these realities in mind. That simply isn't true either & the Bible makes that plain. Our God knew full well what we would become when He made us and created us anyway. It's not that our pain is a surprise to Him or something He must overcome to work His purpose in us. It is something that while unnatural to us still exists to bring Him glory for our incomprehensible benefit. And it is important that we see that especially if we are suffering or watching someone else we love enduring suffering.
You see if we aren't careful and we do not remember what God has revealed to us in the scripture about our suffering we can easily slip into a never ending cycle of self pity, isolation & loneliness to our further detriment & pain. That’s because it's now the natural disposition of our heart (because of sin) to go inward when we are hurting instead of reaching out to the one who can help us. And the devil knows this. He knows that we were created with an outward focus in mind (to love our God & other people...for our benefit & for theirs).
He knows that it's our natural bend now to only think of our self when we are sad, to go hopelessly & helplessly inward when we are in pain, to withdraw from everyone we know & love (even the One who loved us & saved us) to our harm. That is why he presses so hard against us in our thoughts when we are hurting. That is why he's so relentless in our pain. He knows if he can draw our attention away from those who love us & the One who saved us, he can lead us away into a never ending cycle of self-imposed torment from which we cannot escape on our own even if we try. And it is his delight to hurt us.
And He does... all the time...at least that has been my personal experience as of late. But where does that leave us? What do we do having been sucked in? How do we escape the inescapable vortex our sadness creates (and the devil exploits) in our tragedy which only causes us more pain, pushing us further into ourselves? How do we escape the inevitable dilemma of this unending cycle? The answer I have found in my own situation is really quite simple. I must return to the revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in scripture & the hope that is promised to me there in it.
More specifically I must revisit the person & work of Jesus Christ on my behalf in redemption. By saturating my heart & mind with the truth of the Gospel & more importantly what Jesus suffered on my behalf, I am confronted with the reality of the love of God in Christ, the truth that because He has conquered the grave in my place even my pain has a purpose. My suffering is not in vain because it is working on my behalf to perfect in me a lasting character, the character of the One who saved me beating the devil at his own game, redirecting my focus. Let me explain.
As I begin to turn my attention away from myself & the problems I face toward the Love of God in Christ I am inevitably overcome by the reality of everything He has done for me on my behalf. I am humbled by the way He lowered himself, laying down His life for my sake. I am awed by the pain he experienced for me dying in my place so I can be free. I am grateful for the living hope I now have in Him being reconciled to the Father in His name and filled with His Spirit. Before I know it, the gospel has already begun to refocus my heart & mind on the love of God in Christ.
And the product of that change of focus is a change of heart. And I begin to see my own suffering in the light of His. I begin to feel the weight of what He did in my place instead of the weight of my pain. And I am humbled once again. So that now where all I could think about before was my own terrible circumstance now by the grace of God I begin to think of the One who saved me & the conditions he endured to redeem me. And now I'm thinking about my family & all of the people God has given me to reach out to me in our trial. And I am grateful for the love His body has lavished on us in His name.
But it doesn't just stop there. Because as soon as the revelation of the Gospel has taken root in my heart & manifested itself in my life, the Spirit of God takes me even deeper, further into the mysteries of God in Christ than I've ever been before. And now I'm thinking about our resurrected bodies, meditating on the promise of a newly restored earth, and what it will be like to worship God for all eternity in His very presence without sin or self to distract me. I realize I have nothing to give him for all of this and I am only speechless. I remember that to suffer is to fellowship with the suffering savior, to worship in suffering is an honor the angels don't get to have. And before I know it I'm humbled again by the privilege I get to share in the gospel.
Now a few things before I continue. FIRST: It is not a one-time thing, this sort of gospel redirection. It happens over a lifetime of walking with God and is no small matter of discipline & persistence. Since human pain is inevitable & constant, life hard & the heart cruel I must daily have my mind realigned to the reality of it. I must daily return and be confronted by it no matter how I feel or what I am going through at the moment. And SECOND: There is nothing inherently wrong with feeling pain or being lonely in the midst of a trial. That is not the point of what I'm saying at all. It is no more spiritual to act like we have everything together in a trial than it is to quote bible verses like they were some kind of spiritual badge of accomplishment when we are suffering.
No the point that I am trying to make is that, where suffering is concerned, it is always best for believers in Christ to have a redemptive perspective of reality no matter what they are going through. And since we do not naturally have this perspective (because of sin & self) we must constantly seek to be confronted by it daily until it finally begins to sink in and change the way we think. And if anyone other than Christ understood that it was the Apostle Paul himself. And His writings only prove it.
Consider the fact that he always began his letters with the gospel indicative (what God has already done for us & still doing in Christ) before he moved on to the central imperative (what our lives should look like if we really believe it). Perhaps that's even why he chose to answer the carnal challenges of the Corinthian church by redirecting their attention to the eternal perspective. Instead of gloating over some superficial spiritual work he had accomplished on his own he chose to share the testimony of his own humiliation & suffering with them and the lesson God gave to him in it. What better way to silence the carnal accusations of the flesh than to repeat the words of Christ to Him by the Spirit?
What better way to pull US out of our selves, to ground us in the gospel & deliver us from Satan in our own trials than to hear the words of Christ to Paul in his own suffering? (I am humbled as I write this, because even now I am reminded why I started writing in the first place. I need to hear this. Oh how I need to hear this...every single day & in every single way as often as I can! I need to hear this).
"[God's] grace is sufficient (for me). [His] power is made perfect in [my] weakness." -2 Cor. 12:9
In my loneliness & tiredness when I am doubting & afraid, when the woman I love more than life itself begins to grow weak & lose her hair from the chemo, when my children begin to fuss because I cannot give them all of me every moment of the day, when I feel alone, like no one understands me or feel like a hollow empty shell, His grace is always sufficient for me. Always. Sufficient. For me.
Like the Corinthian church I need to hear this, to be confronted with the reality of it daily especially in my difficulty. I need to be confronted with the single truth that any suffering I might experience in this life cannot be compared with the suffering the Son of God endured in my place. I need to be reminded that there is no greater love than the love He poured out for me in His suffering. I need to remember that the love of God extends beyond my initial salvation & provides me a living hope that will pull me out of my sadness, if I am only willing to believe it.
I need to be saturated with Jesus, who He is and what He gave for me. And if you are anything like me then you must need that too. And I haven't just written for me today. And you haven't read this in vain.
Saints of God please listen to me. If we are willing to see it for what it is in the light of our Redemption, our suffering is really the blessing of God to break us, to remake us & renew us, to change us & to grow us, to ground us & to free us, to ultimately reveal to us the glorious inheritance God has given us, His patient pilgrims through the Gospel of our salvation in Christ Jesus which is only for our benefit. And that is a reality that will sustain us if we are only willing to believe it.
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