In Praise of God

With spring Bible study classes complete and conferences past, I have recently had some time to spend in the works of some of my favorite Puritan authors.  Upon reading portions of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs, I was once again struck by this thought which I had long ago marked in the margin.

 “It is a saying of Luther:  ‘The sea of God’s mercies should swallow up all our particular afflictions.’  Name any affliction that is upon you:  there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up.  If you pour a pailful of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show, but if you throw it into the sea, there is no sign of it.  So, afflictions considered in themselves, we think are very great, but let them be considered with the sea of God’s mercies we enjoy, and then they are not so much, they are nothing in comparison.”

How grateful I am for these faithful believers who have come before us, and for God’s grace in preserving their thoughts…for a heart such as mine in a time such as ours!

This evening as I was reading chapter two of a new book entitled Helpful Truth in Past Places written by Mark Deckard, I encountered a series of principles he quotes from a lecture given by Sinclair Ferguson.  Although all of these principles are well known to me and established in my heart through many scriptural passages and examples, I found myself thinking how quickly and easily these truths can fade from conscious thought.  And so, to help me reestablish these truths…and hopefully, to also encourage you…here are ten of Ferguson’s thoughts:

• God is in control of his universe.
• God is working out his perfect purposes.
• God is not my servant.
• God’s ways are far more mysterious and wonderful than I can understand.
• God is good–all of the time; I can trust him–all of the time.
• God’s timetable is not the same as mine.
• God is far more interested in what I become than in what I do.
• Freedom from suffering is not part of the promise of the Christian gospel.
• Suffering is an integral part of the Christian life.
• God’s purposes, not mine, are what bring him glory.

 

“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.  Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for as many years as we have seen evil.  Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. 

Let the favor of the LORD our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands…yes, establish the work of our hands!”

Psalm 90:14-17

 

As I have lately been studying, meditating, and teaching on spiritual comfort, questions regarding the reasons for trials and troubles (whether big or small) have repeatedly surfaced.   As I have searched out answers, one question has occupied my thoughts more than others:

How much does our sinful pride necessitate trials and troubles in our pursuit of Christ-likeness?

In other words, how successful would we be in putting pride and self to death if we did not have trials and troubles to attack our pride, humble us, and drive us to God for help and comfort?

Thomas Charles (a preacher in North Wales in the 1770’s) writes,  “The cross, which we must expect to meet daily in the way, will hurt nothing but sin and self:  and surely we would not wish to spare them.  I hope it is our happiness to think, that God is against them, and has determined their destruction in his own way.  Blessed be the Lord, there is a world where righteousness only dwelleth, and where sin and self shall no more trouble us for ever!”

I don’t know about you, but I do not often meditate on the necessity of trials in life.  But it does make sense.  If trials were not needful for His people, God would surely not cause or allow them.  He does nothing without reason and He does nothing that is not for the good of those who love Him.  So although they can be grievous and heart-rending, sometimes to the extreme, I am thankful for trials, not only because they do indeed “hurt” sin and self, but also because they drive us to God, who is the God of all comfort, and there is no better place to be than utterly and totally dependent upon Him! (2 Corinthians 1)

Over the last few weeks I have been surrounded by grief.  This weekend I have listened in shock to a woman who escaped very recently from Iraq, after having suffered through the unjust imprisonment of her husband, the looting of her home, threat of death, loss of family with no hope of returning to be reunited with many of her family members.  She describes the scene to me of hearing the screams of families being killed around her in her apartment complex in Baghdad. . .her neighbors on both sides, killed by terrorists.  Though she is now in America, I grieve for her soul, loyal to a false god, her eyes yet unopened to the truth of the gospel.

A friend, who is younger than me, has been told that she will live the rest of her earthly life in chronic pain (at best), one friend has a terminal illness that could end her life before most would expect, and she grieves that she will most likely bear no more children, and I have wept with a woman who was confronted with the sin of homosexuality.

Last year I grieved through a separation from my husband due to a military deployment.  Trusting God to make good out of what I saw as evil has been a hard work of obedience: even after he has returned, I still struggle.  This weekend, as Jeremy and I were given the opportunity to meet and begin building a relationship with a refugee family from Iraq, in a matter of twenty minutes or so, the eight months our family was separated began to make sense.  I step back, and suddenly 2008 looks so different to me!

So what is the difference between someone who struggles in agony under suffering and one who is still in agony but endures it with grace?

An understanding of redemption.  When God rules a heart, he rules a life and asks us to hold comfort with open hands.  Sometimes He gives the gift of comfort, but sometimes He does not.  This is for our good and His glory, of course.  So, when I take my comfort so seriously that I chase it at the expense of God’s priorities, God’s will and God’s glory, often the result will look like an adult temper tantrum.  Just like a toddler, we ask “why,” sometimes we even punish those around us with our bad attitudes, ungodly and unkind treatment of them, some of us even throw a physical fit, shouting and demanding our way.  Though we frown on this behavior in children, we excuse and justify it in ourselves as we shake our fists at the Holy God who gave us life in the first place!

Am I trusting in the grace of the One who saved me, the One who is sanctifying me, and the One who will call me home to Heaven…or am I trusting my heart, myself, my plans, my, my, my?  If I step back and gaze at my circumstances with eyes and heart that hope ultimately only for heaven and in the glory of God who is carrying me there, suddenly, everything is different.  When I back up from my daily pursuits and ask God how HE sees the things I have been spending the most time on, often, they are revealed as worthless.  The life-altering concept of the heart is that of obedience: are we willing to trade our priorities for God’s, our desires for His delights, our glory (ouch!) for His glory, and ultimately, our end (which is death, if we are without Christ - and this is proved by how we spend our earthly lives, 1 John says) for His end, which is heaven for those are given eyes to see their sin, and who place their faith, by God’s grace, in the blood Christ poured out for them on the cross.

What am I willing to trade for the glory of God?  My plans, my ideas, my comfort, my money, my very life?  Do I realize that the trade is actually unfair?  What God has in store (here on earth AND in heaven) for those who trust Him far outweighs whatever I throw away!

This I  know: better is one day in your (God’s) courts than a thousand elsewhere (Psalm 84:10). . .God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. . .God’s ways are not ours (Isaiah 55:8), no ear has heard, no eye has seen the things God has planned for those who love him (1 Chronicles 2:9).  Though we suffer for a while, these things produce growth and maturity in us now, and an eternal weight of glory (1 Peter 1:6-9).  What will I do today to walk in submission to the glory of God?  What comfort will I lay down today for the joys of willful obedience to the One who obediently laid His very life down for my own soul?

Crossbearing.  Truthfully, it’s not something which comes often to mind . . . but I know it should.

Matthew 16:24  Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

 

Mark 8:34  And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 

 

Luke 9:23  And He said to all, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Recently, I have been powerfully reminded of Christ’s call to crossbearing as I have been reading Walking as He Walked by Joel Beeke.  While this book has been greatly encouraging, it has also been exceptionally convicting.  Beeke’s thoughts on crossbearing have huge implications for marriage, parenting, discipleship, hardships…and all of life!  For instance, he says:

“We want to be smooth and sanitized Christians–not cross-carriers.  The cross is an offense to us.  The cross gets in our way.  To take up Jesus’ shame, Jesus’ cross, and to follow Him is against our nature.  It spoils our plans.  It breaks our selfish utopias.  If forces us to set priorities in our lives.  It brings us face to face with our selves and with God.  The cross exposes us to who and what we are.”  (page 11)

“Crossbearing is for your benefit; it is your Father’s gift to you.”  (page 19)

“…remember, He [Christ] has measured out your every cross.”  (page 22)

“Your future is not here, your life is not here, your joy is not in this world.  You were redeemed for a better world, and this life is but the preparation by which God prepares you to be with Him.”  (page 22)

“When you murmur and chafe and rebel against your cross, you are not following your Master.  You are denying your discipleship.”  (page 25)

In the midst of the busyness and uncertainties of life today, I am thankful to Dr. Beeke for prompting some much needed self-examination.  My fervent prayer is that I would not murmur or chafe against my Lord, but willingly, and gratefully, let Him prepare me to live with Him for eternity. . . in whatever way He determines is best!