pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: pain


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Prayers and Promises

At times we wrestle with a deep ache inside.  Sorrow and dreams that never come to be are two of the things in life that we all face at times.  It can be that moment we realize we are not going to make the team or get that position or promotion.  It can be when a relationship ends or when one we love passes on.  The deep ache inside is very real.

Hannah longed for a child.  Peninnah, the other wife, had borne Elkanah children and was more than willing to point this out to Hannah.  Elkanah loves Hannah more.  Peninnah’s unfulfilled dreams was to be the love of Elkanah’s life, but she was second in his heart.  To soothe her ache she lashed out.  But the ache remained.  Human solutions and efforts do not heal such aches.

Hannah chose instead to bring her ache to God.  In prayer she poured out her heart to God.  In faith she turned to the only one who can truly bring us the healing we need.  God heard the prayers of His faithful servant.  God’s response filled Hannah’s ache and brought her hope.

God may not bring us the job or the child or the spot on the team.  He may not restore the relationship and seeing our loved one who has gone on waits for us to join them in eternity.  But God does respond to the prayers of the faithful servant.  If we allow How to, He will restore, heal, and pour His love into us.  The promise is not to give us all the desires of our heart.  The promise is to be present, to dwell in us, to fill us with His love, to give us what we need.  For this great love, thank you God.

Scripture reference: 1 Samuel 1: 4-8


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Hold Onto God

A famine at home forced the family of four to move to a foreign land.  They left behind their kin, the culture they knew, their faith base, and all else that mattered to find food.  The family made the move to survive, to be in a better situation.

In smaller ways we do this all the time.  We make a little change here or there seeking to be happier, healthier, or somehow better off.  Sometimes we too make larger changes.  Maybe you have moved to a new city or state or even country to have a better ‘opportunity’.  If you have done this, you can relate to this family – strangers in a foreign land.

Just as they were getting settled, the father dies. The mother at least has her two sons.  They each eventually marry a foreign woman.  The sons are happy and the possibility of grandchildren may some day bless her life.  Slowly the foreign land becomes les foreign as they learn the ways and begin to put down roots.  Ten years later, no grandkids.  Both boys die.  She is left with just two daughters-in-law.  And more pain and loss.

Perhaps a change you have made did not work out either.  Maybe the job wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  Maybe something outside of your control changed your situation too.  Maybe like you, this woman found herself in a tight spot.  Virtually alone in a foreign land, she turned to her foundation, to God.  In Him she laid her trust.  In Him she laid her future.  Although tragic to this point, it is just the beginning of her story.  In the end it is a story of God’s blessings.  Hold onto God.  He wants to bless you too.

Scripture reference: Ruth 1: 1-5


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His Promise

Job wrestles with the question many people wrestle with: why did this happen to me?  In general, we view the world as good and God as loving and caring.  Most people believe these things to be true.  Yet for most, believers included, we almost always ask the ‘why  question when unexplained or unjust suffering and trials come our way.  It is a natural question to ask.  We wrestle with this question, because at least a little, in our minds, we think that if we are faithful that no bad should come our way.  We track right along with Job’s thinking.  This too is a natural thought process.

In Job’s day the common understanding was that if evil or bad befell someone, it was because of sin.  For example, if one were blind it was because of sin in their life or in their parent’s life.  This idea is backed up by the experience of the nation of Israel.  Sin causes separation from God, then they experience trial, exile, or some other calamity.  The view that God blessed Israel with peace, victory… when they were faithful was also a dominant belief.  We mostly hold these beliefs today as well.  Good brings good and evil brings evil is still a common thought process.  It also holds generally true in life: if you are nice to someone, usually they are nice in return.  The reverse is also true.

Job was seen as righteous and good in his pre-trial life.  Once the bad befell him, his wife and friends assumed he had sinned.  They thought, Why else would God do this?  But Job knew he was still faithful, upright, blameless.  So he asked God the ‘why?’ question.  God’s response was big questions that did not really answers Job’s question.  God asked Job is he could bring floods or lightning or even rain.  He asked if he could provide prey for the lion or food for the raven.  He asked if Job was there at the creation of the earth.  The questions do not provide an answer but turn Job back inward.

God created a world that is good and has order and logic.  There is both good and evil.  Both must exist if we are to have free will.  God does not force us to obey Him or to be faithful to Him.  We do so out of love.  We love because He first loved us.  Love is our grateful response to the love God poured out in Jesus Christ.  In life there is free will and logical consequences.  The world was created as good, not as perfect.  Perfect will be the new heaven when Christ returns.  So some rains waters the crops and some rains flood the fields.  Illness and death are part of life.  So is birth and good health.  Like Job, in the midst of our pain and suffering we ask ‘why?’  But the answer is elusive.  It does not come in many cases.  But the promise we receive in Christ is not elusive: Jesus saves all who call on His name and through His saving grace we will all one day enter that perfect world.  Hold onto the promise.  Live the promise.  Share the promise.

Scripture reference: Job 38: 34-41


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In the Pain, Suffering… Love

On the cross Jesus cries out, “My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?”  In His anguish and pain Jesus is using the psalms as a prayer to God the Father.  Most of this psalm is a song of lament – full of pain, anger, suffering.  Surely on the cross Jesus felt all of these emotions.  Today, as we remember what He did for us on that cross, may we too allow ourselves to feel the pain, the suffering, the loneliness.

We all have experiences that were painful.  There are and will be times in our lives when we hurt physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  There will be times when we cry out the same prayer, “My God, my god, why?”  In these moments, know Jesus is interceding for you.  IN those times and places, allow Him to come and minister to your hurts, your pains, your suffering.

Sometimes we want to remain in the hurt.  Sometimes it is hard to get past it.  Because He died, He was able to rise.  Because He rose there is always hope.  The psalm goes on.  In the last third we are reminded of that hope and the promises and our call.  We are called back out of our hurts to praise His name, for in the praise we connect back to God.  We are called to care for others, for the poor and the afflicted, for in caring we are also connected back to God.

We are called to praise Him, to cry out to Him, to walk in the hurt with Him, to remain confident in His abiding love, to trust in Him.  Our creator and sustainer is always near, always present.  In the pain, suffering, and loneliness of today, remember His promises.  Remember His love.  The next psalm has some familiar words as well.  “The Lord is my shepherd..” and “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…”  It too concludes with hope: “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  Thanks be to God for his abiding love and presence.

Scripture reference: Psalms 22 and 23


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Offer Forgiveness, Find Freedom

Forgiveness can be a hard thing to offer.  We are not talking about the garden variety ‘sorry’ when we bump into someone in the hall but the kind that take some effort because the hurt was deep and it lingers still.

Peter asks Jesus if forgiving someone seven times is enough.  I think Peter thought it was more than forgiving someone a few times, so he thought was doing well.  But Jesus says ‘no Peter, forgive seventy-seven times’. (Or seventy times seven in some translations!)  Jesus is really telling Peter to just keep forgiving – forever.  That’s hard.  But a lot of Jesus’ truths are hard.  It takes effort and commitment to follow Jesus and to seek to live as He lived.

So often when we choose not to forgive – and make no mistake, it is a choice – the one we are hurting most is ourself.  Frequently the offender has moved on or does not even know the hurt they caused was so deep, yet we can fixate and dwell on the event and the hurt caused.  We can even allow it to consume us.  This is not healthy nor is it following Jesus’ directive.

By choosing to forgive, we first acknowledge in our heart the need for healing and restoration.  As we offer it to the other, our healing is made complete.  We are set free for that which bound us and we return to living as a whole, healthy child of God.

Scripture reference: Matthew 18: 21-22


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Near to God

In times of trial or distress, it is common to ask God “Why?” or to wonder where God is in the midst of it all that is happening.  In general we hold to the belief that God is supposed to fix things or at least make them better.  And when He doesn’t, we begin to question and wonder.

During these “dark nights of the soul” it can be so difficult to find God.  It’s not that God is absent from us, it is just that we are having a hard time connecting to or feeling God is near.  It is truly like we are wandering around in the dark.

And at just the right moment, after all has been stripped away and we are desperate, God is right there.  He comes alongside, arms around us, and He walks us through.  When we get to the point of crying out to God, we find He is right there.  Then the gloom begins to lift and we begin to see the light ahead.  James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”  This is an important verse to remember when we are in the midst of struggle and we feel alone.  May we keep it ever in our hearts.