As we finish our series on how to deal with the past Biblically, we'll continue to focus on that realm in our past in which we consider ourselves to be innocent. This is the area of our past that we have trouble with, not because we have done something, but because something has been done to us. We most often associate this type of difficulty with a deep level of pain. Often questions of, "Why?" or "Why me?" arise as we consider these areas of our past. In this, the last post in the series we'll discuss how to deal with the problem of trials due to living in a fallen world.
How to Deal with Times of Trial Due to Living in a Fallen World
"Why am I so fat?"
"Why did he have to die?"
"Why did she have to suffer?"
"Why couldn't I have done more to help?"
"Did we really have to lose everything?"
The answer to all of these, to one degree or another, usually has to do with the fact that we live in a cursed and fallen world.
The reality of our fallen world cannot be denied. In the past few weeks, I saw our pastor broken over the loss of a close friend; talked to my aunt who was on the verge of tears about her health problems, not to mention her grief over losing her husband almost a year ago; watched in amazement as more and more people around me became deathly afraid of the dreaded swine flu; talked with a neighbor about a friend (who has Alzheimer's) that may have cancer; talked with a church member about her sister who is in a hospital bed recovering from a car wreck, her employer who just returned from receiving cancer treatments, and her husband's friend who has gangreen; another church member whose mother has cancer in advanced stages; another church member that recently lost her uncle; and I could go on. Not to mention the fact that in the past three weeks, the areas of Southeast Asia experienced a monsoon, a tornado, and a tsunami. You cannot escape the nagging feeling that something is very wrong with our world.Things are not as they should be.
If you believe the Bible, than you believe that the reason for this reality of pain, death, and decay goes back to the onset of sin in our world. Ever since Adam and Eve's great blunder, we have lived under the consequences of their choice -the same choice that we all would have made, had we been in their "shoes." In order to show the awfulness of sin, God cursed the earth and all that dwells in it. This sin and it's effects touches all of us. We are living the horrible proof that life lived apart from God only leads to ruin.
Ultimately, however, this reality of sin is not the final answer. If you believe the Bible, then you believe in a sovereign God.
The reality of our sovereign Lord compells us to cry out for a better answer. How can a loving, all-powerful God allow so much suffering? The Biblical testimony of the total sovereignty of God over all things cannot be disputed. Isn't that the point of Matthew 10:29, not one [half-cent sparrow] will fall to the ground apart from your Father? It doesn't matter how sovereign you think the Lord to be, He is actually more sovereign than that. Everything that happens, whether the death of God's son, the decisions of a hard-hearted King, or flipping a coin to decide where to eat lunch has been ordained by the only one who controls all things.
Amos 3:6 Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
But, this is not the end of the story. God is not only raw, unrestrained power. His power in sending calamity is always self-tempered by His love, grace, and mercy. Not only is the Lord great in power, but He is also slow to anger (Nah. 1:3). His goal in glorifying Himself is never divorced from His goal to glorify Himself through you and me. He is most glorified in us when we willingly give Him glory, and to take it a step further: we give him the most glory when we glorify Him in our trials. And God is loving to send us calamity so that we will look to him, As Francis Chan has said,
If God is truly the greatest good on this earth, would He be loving us if He didn't draw us toward what was best for us (Himself)? If He didn't, wouldn't we accuse Him off being unloving in the end, when all things are revealed?
So, what kind of response does the Lord expect from us? Humble surrender to His will. If we would see more of God and if He would be glorified in us, than this is the only reponse we can have. And the irony is, this is the response that brings us the most joy (James 1:2)! Hershael York shared recently of Harold Bratcher, a career missionary to Brazil. In the '70's, he was enjoying a quiet river boat ride with his 11 year old son, Joel. Harold looked up from his Bible reading when he noticed his son was being unusually quiet only to find that he had disappeared. Three days later, Harold looked into the face of his son's dead body which had floated upriver. When Hershael went to Brazil to visit the Bratchers as a nineteen year old, he overheard Harold praying in the night, "if it means offering up my son for your glory, I would offer him up a thousand times over."
Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Don't let your past cripple you in your present. Let your trials serve the purpose for which God intended them. Let them give you a greater dependance upon Him for His glory.
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