Pain and Suffering

Like any good parent, there are times when God brings difficulty, pain and loss to the lives of his children. The biblical reasons vary, but the hurt is always real. And when those times come it is good to remember the words of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:32-33, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” Jeremiah wants his suffering countrymen to understand that their loving Father finds no pleasure in their pain. Nor is he dispassionate or aloof. He knows the pain of human hurt and he is compassionate – even when our grief is the result of our own sin (as it was for Jeremiah’s generation). We should not doubt that in time God will bring healing and restoration. It is his nature to do so. As his children, we should expect it and reach out for it in humility and with unwavering faith. In his wisdom he may make us wait for it – sometimes for months or in some cases for years – but it should be our resolve to patiently wait on his deliverance. Pain hurts, but when his purposes are accomplished, his unfailing love will be our relief and our joy.

-- Pastor Mike

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Wait Patiently

Sometimes the way we read the Bible becomes a disservice to our Christian life. When a tension is presented in the plot of a biblical narrative we naturally “can’t wait” to see how it will be resolved; so we rush on to see how God works it all out. And after we’ve become familiar with all the Bible stories, our rereads of the various human crises are often skimmed with the calm thought that “in a few pages it will all be fine… I know how this story ends!” Unfortunately the impact to our Christian lives in not allowing our hearts to feel the duration of the time markers found in these accounts, is that we begin to feel like our own prolonged and unresolved conflicts, injustices, pains, and problems are bizarre or unusual. We impatiently cry out to God as though he is inattentive or has forgotten about our hurt. But stop, think, and sympathize with the reality that Isaac wasn’t born to Abraham until twenty-five years after the promise. Remember that Joshua and Caleb had to wander through the desert for forty years before entering the Promised Land. Call to mind that the time between the anointing of David as king and his enthronement was a turbulent fifteen years. Don’t forget that the Babylonian captivity stretched on for seventy years. So when you read your Bible, slow down and experience these stories as they were intended. Recognize that built in to almost every biblically recorded predicament is God’s call for his people to “wait on him” and “be patient!”

For more sermons and devotionals on Waiting Patiently, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org. 

Real Trust

Trust in God is often expressed by our restraint. We are expected to recognize that God is present, aware and lovingly involved in every difficult situation we face. It is required that Christians curb many of their “natural” responses, and learn to patiently, and often quietly, wait for God’s resolution. Of course there are times he calls us to stand up, speak out or fight, but more times than we’d prefer, God demands that we slow down, keep quiet, and wait for his intervention. We need to remember that in most cases “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). So the more you consider the character of God and his omnipresent concern for his kids, the more you will be able to sincerely say with the psalmist, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord” and you will gladly heed the call to “wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord” (Psalms 27:13-14).

For more sermons and devotionals on trust please go to the Focal Point Ministries website.