Most of us have been taught that if we have faith, then sickness, pain, and hurt have no place in our lives at all because we have the Holy Spirit, but what happens when you pick up the Bible and you begin to read about men of faith who have been hurt, and sick and in pain? What about our brothers and sister in Christ, including myself, who have suffered at one point in our lives? How do we explain that?
In the word of God it is evident when we consider the various trials given to the “heroes of faith” that suffering, affliction, difficulties, and testings are the means through which God performs some of His deepest work within our hearts. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). The “outer shell” of the seed must be broken so that the life of the Spirit can come through. Only God can deconstruct the self so that life’s priorities, focus, and passion is redirected to Him alone as the Source of life and sustenance.
Alan Redpath once wrote, “When God wants to do an impossible task, He takes an impossible individual, and crushes him” (The making of a Man of God). This seems to be the divine pattern. How else can we be in a genuine relationship with the LORD if we are still clinging to a set of mistaken assumptions about what is real, about who we really are, and about who God really is?
One example I have:
My mother have been cancer free for over 5 years now but as a side affect from the chemo and radiation treatments she received, she ended up with one arm larger than the other. The doctors are currently treating this edema she developed by having her wear a wrap around her arm that she must keep on for weeks at a time. Another thing she still have as an affect of the radiation is that her hair never grew back to it's first state. She said at first she was upset about it but then she thought about Paul and the problem he had that he wanted the LORD to remove from his body. The LORD's response was, my grace is sufficient. (2cor 12:6-109 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. So now my mother look at her arm as a reminder of how good God is and how he healed her from this cancer. Yes she received treatment but the LORD is our healer. Through all the struggles that my mother went through, including heart break from divorce after 33 years of marriage, it all brought her closer to the LORD. I told my mother that sometimes we need reminding because we are so quick to forget how God has got us out of trouble or healed us or saved us and we live on without giving a thought about it. She now look at her arm and say this is my battle wound that the LORD gave me the victory over. And now she have a greater testimony along with her message. Nothing is going to stop her from doing the work of the LORD! Now I can see how beautiful my mother's arm, hair and heart is because of what it represent, her victory!
For Christians, this brokenness is a lifelong process as we keep reencountering the powerlessness of our inward condition and the all-pervading despair that lurks within us, but the LORD is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”, and therefore He provides nourishment in His love for us. A.W. Tozer said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply (Root of the Righteous, 1986)
Over all, in the end 4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. Psalms 112:4
Over all, in the end 4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly. They are generous, compassionate, and righteous. Psalms 112:4
As always, I love you and God Bless you,
Angela R. Ingram
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