Faith in God when life is difficult. 3

God has a number of reasons for using “all things” of our experience, the outcome of which will be for the development of our faith and trust in Him. The following points show the variety of purposes He uses. 

The “all things” conform us into the likeness of Jesus

Paul gives a key reason in the verses following the “all things” we experience in Romans 8:28.  Paul tells us in verse 29 that those who are in a relationship with God as Father have been “predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” (v.29) He then goes on to say that the ultimate aim is that “those he called, he also justified” (v.30) so that the final end will be glorification.  

His primary purpose is to see His children grow and become more like His Son. God will use the trials and difficulties, the “all things” of life, to achieve that end. It is as we respond in faith to God, trusting Him with the outcome, that God is able to work things into our lives that will bring about that conformity to His Son. We will see how that works in the following ways.

The “all things” includes God’s discipline for our good

God is using the ‘all things’ as part of his discipline and correction, for He desires us to learn, grow and mature into the likeness of His Son.  Hebrews 12 tells us that the Lord disciplines those he loves and accepts as sons and daughters (v.6). It’s the evidence that we are loved by the Father. Then in verse 10 the writer tells us that “God disciplines us for our good, that we might share his holiness.” The benefit of this discipline is that it will “produce a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (v.11) So one of the purposes of the ‘all things’ is God’s work of discipline in us, His training of us, so that we will grow and mature spiritually as part of a conforming work into the likeness of His Son.

The “all things” prove our faith and trust in God

Another important reason for God’s use of “all things” is to test our faith and trust in God. James 1:2-3 tells us that we should rejoice in our trials because they prove not only the genuineness of our faith but develop spiritual maturity which will lead to us being perfect and complete. This will be finally true when we see Jesus as He is (1 John3:2). Without the testing of our faith, our trust and dependence upon God will not be given the opportunity to grow. 

The “all things” guide us into blessing

When we are faced with hard and difficult times, we may wonder where God is in all that we are going through. Naomi felt that when she returned to Bethlehem after having lost both husband and two sons in the land of Moab (Ruth 1:20-21). She returns to Bethlehem a discouraged woman, conscious that their move to Moab had only resulted in loss for her. However, God was still there in control causing her to return to Bethlehem. There He leads Ruth in such a way that she meets Boaz, and through that will bring the blessing of God’s provision and security in a husband for Ruth. This will lead ultimately to the birth of the Lord Jesus. Although Naomi suffered much initially, eventually it resulted in a good outcome as God worked His purposes in their difficult situation. Job is another example.  We may find it difficult to trust God in periods of suffering, but our faith in God will ultimately be rewarded in ways that will prove best for us in the long term. 

The “all things” will bring glory to God by our witness

As we respond in faith and trust in God in the “all things” of life, God is glorified. It becomes a witness that will attract others to God. In 1 Peter 2:12 Peter says, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” This is followed up in chapter 3:14-15, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” People are watching how we respond to our difficult and trying times. If our responses honour God and we continue to trust even when all seems to falling apart around us, people will want to know why, and this leads to Peter’s exhortation to be “always prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. It is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”(v.15)  It is a counterintuitive fact that it is the places where the church is persecuted that seem to be where the church is growing. Perhaps one reason why the church in the West is not as it should be is because we haven’t been put to the test of suffering in the way that our brothers and sisters in places like China have faced.

These five purposes encourage us to trust that God is in control and has our good at heart. Without the “all things” to deal with our faith won’t have any reason to trust God.  Dr. James Dobson has said, “The removal of adversity from our lives would eventually lead to the demise of Christianity on this earth.” Through our experiences of our Father’s goodness to us in the ‘all things’, our faith and trust in Him will grow as we become conformed to Christ Jesus.

Faith in God when life is difficult. 2

There are two kinds of promises in the Bible, conditional, and unconditional promises.  Unconditional promises are ones in which God has promised to do something irrespective of how we may respond. An example of an unconditional promise is Hebrews 13:5b: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  On the other hand, the conditional promise has a certain criterion which needs to be true of us to have the assurance that God will keep the promise.  Romans 8:28 is a conditional promise because it says that God will bring about what is promised to “those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Why is this promise specifically directed towards those who love God?

Earlier in the chapter Paul has been referring to those who have the Spirit of sonship, that we are children, and “heirs and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17)  “We are eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (v.23)   This is what we are hoping for, and waiting for.  Furthermore, the Spirit helps us in our weakness enabling us in our praying even interceding for us in our weaknesses. (v.27)

It is in this context of a new relationship of sonship with God that we have the promise in verse 28. 

To come back to the question we asked earlier as to why?  This promise is directed towards those who love God, it is because we are now his children, and He is our Father.  As Father, His love for us will be seen in His desire to bless us with what is good.  As Jesus reminds us, “your Father in heaven [will] give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11).  This is why when we pray to Him as our Father in our times of difficulties, we can trust and rest assured that He has it all under control, and will use the “all things” for our good. 

The “all things” may be tough and hard to deal with at times, but we know that He will be with us, and He knows how much we can take and will only allow what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), and we can rest assured that “The Lord watches over all who love him” (Psalm 145:20).

            What an encouragement to know that because of this relationship with God as our Father, we can commit all things to Him because we are His children.  We can have this confidence in Him because we love Him, just as we know He loves us (1 John 4:19).  And as we believe and actively trust God in those difficult times, our faith in God can grow as we experience His love and care in bringing good out of the trials that we go through.

            Next time, we will look at some of the different objectives that God has in bringing out ‘good’ in the ‘all things’ of life. 

Faith in God when life is difficult. 1

Faith in God when life is difficult.  1

            Many of us have faced hard and difficult times during this lockdown from Covid-19.  For some of us, it is the stress of loneliness and not meeting people, for others it is balancing work at home with home school, or the financial implications of the situation, which can lead to anxieties about the future.

            How can we trust God in these situations of life?  Is there anything that gives us the confidence to choose to believe that God is in control?  As someone has said, “Faith is not a feeling.  It is a choice to trust God even when the road ahead seems uncertain.”[1]  We will look at some verses that give us peace, confidence and hope in life’s difficult times.

            The first is one of the most quoted verses we hear when life is proving difficult, but is a verse that we need to use wisely when helping others in their difficult times.   What they need is empathy, a listening ear, and a walking along beside them through those times.  However, this verse can prepare us for those times when we find ourselves struggling with life.  The verse is Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  This can be a hard verse to believe but it is one of many promises that we can use to strengthen our faith in God.  Often we are impatient and want to see how it is all going to work out immediately.  If we could see the end there would be no need for faith.  This verse encourages us to put our trust in God when the going is tough believing that the end, whenever that might be, will be the very best. 

To be forewarned is to be forearmed for those eventualities.  In 1 Kings 20:22 a prophet went to King Ahab and told him, "Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again."  King Ahab would have been foolish to have ignored that advice.  So too, God is helping us to see that we can prepare our hearts for the all things that we face in life, the good and the bad.  How we prepare is important. 

            One of the ways to prepare our hearts is to take in God’s word.  God’s word can reassure our hearts that He can be a trusted place of refuge.  His word strengthens our hearts so that our heart can rest in the knowledge that He knows and cares for us.  One example is Psalms 18:1-2  “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”  Words like these can be a great comfort to us. 

            Another way to prepare our hearts is to rest in the promises of God.  Here in Romans 8:31-39 Paul reassure us with a promise that can give confidence for the future.  Paul puts it like this; no matter what may happen, whether it is “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” (v.35)  “I am convinced that neither death nor life,…” or anything else “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(v.38)  What a comfort to know that we can believe this promise because no matter what may happen, we will be safe. What an encouragement to know that Jesus is also interceding for us. (v.34).  There are many other promises that we can take to heart and rest in as we believe that God will bring good out of the ‘all things’ which we face in life.  God may not work things out how we think or would like, and we may have to wait, but we can believe and rest our hearts in God to keep his word.

            To be continued.

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[1] On Facebook, Mindful Christianity Today, TobyMac#speaklife

Remembering what we read.

            This period of lock-down has given me more time to read.  However I am finding that I am not remembering very well the things that I am reading.

            In reading Heather Holleman’s book Guarded by Christ: Knowing the God Who Rescues and Keeps Us, I have not only been helped but also challenged to make a greater effort at remembering particularly those things that God is speaking to me about.   

            In the chapter dealing with the memory, she asks the question “Why can’t I remember – in a meaningful and applicable way – that I’m guarded by Jesus…I read and forget.  We go to church and forget.  We attend conferences, read books, listen to worship songs, and then we forget.” * I identify with that.

            She suggests that one reason is that we live in a digital world in which young adults spend 85 percent of their day connected to digital devices, and they outsource their memory to their phones, laptops, or tablets.  They don’t know information; they mainly know how to access information, and this keeps data one step removed from their minds. Further, “The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves,” resulting in people remembering far less, but knowing where the information can be found.^* In addition to this, we are probably experiencing information overload.  Even if we wanted to recall something, there is so much other information in the way we can’t find what we are looking for. 

            God wants us to remember those things that are important.  Peter tells us, “So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth ….  I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body.” (2 Peter 1:12-13).

            So how do we go about reminding ourselves of the things God is teaching us?  In Psalm 119:9, the psalmist asks, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” The Authorized Version uses the word taking heed for living, so we need to pay attention to it, and then live it out.  It is by putting truth into practice that it becomes more meaningful. Then two verses later he says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  We hide God’s word in our hearts by memorizing it.  By the continual repetition of something it becomes a part of us.  However, the older we get, the more of an effort it becomes to retain things in the mind, or to recall what is already there.  So how can we overcome these problems of forgetfulness and poor recall?

            When reading the Bible or attending a service I have a note book in which I can make notes of things that impress me.  Writing a journal is another way that is helpful, not only because it can be referenced back to as a reminder, but also because when we write we are reinforcing what we are thinking about. 

Often what we need is a prompt to remind us of what we have learnt.  Holleman found picturing the truth a helpful cue to remember.  This resonated with me because being a visual person what I see I remember more readily.  When going shopping I will look at the pictures on the label to find the product whereas my wife will read the words on the item.  We all process life differently so we need to choose the method that best suits us.

        The example Holleman gives is when the Lord used Psalm 97:10 to help her through an anxious time in her life.  She found the picture of being guarded in a castle by the Lord helpful.  Thinking this idea through she came up with several key words that fitted in with the picture which helped to stabilize her heart for the day.  She puts it like this.  “I’m dragging myself out of bed, and before my toes hit the worn carpet, I feel the weight of the day on my soul. I feel the creeping power of shame and guilt begin their encircling strangle. But I remember the words that parade in alliterative beauty across the landscape of my mind.  I’m confident before God and not condemned.  I’m catapulting into the presence of a God who is captivated by me.  I’m not conforming to rules. I’m covered by righteousness.  I recall the words and then Jesus. Immediately, He encloses my heart and soul in a guarding embrace. I’ve generated the soul fortress anew with the first piece of critical data: I’m not condemned. I’m confident. I’m catapulting myself into His arms. You can say this too.” *

            How can we overcome the forgetting of the things the Lord teaches us?  We can begin by asking Him to help and guide us in the method that will work best for us.  Daily repetition using the way that works for you, reinforces it in mind and heart.  Then when we need help – whether it is to resist temptation, looking for encouragement, feeling fearful or anxious, or whatever else the need of the moment might be, the Holy Spirit can then bring to mind His Word to help us through it.  This will encourage our faith and trust in God as we experience His Word in our daily needs and situations.      

* Holleman, H. (2016). Guarded by Christ: knowing the God who rescues and keeps us. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.

A Meditation on Psalm 118:19-21

            I was reading this psalm on Easter Sunday and verse 20 caught my attention.  This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.  I was intrigued as to what the gate of the Lord might be that the psalmist is asking to be opened to him in v.19.  My mind went to Good Friday.  Having cried out, “It is finished!” Jesus gave up His spirit (John 19:30), then the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom (Matt.27:51).  This curtain that signified the separation of man from God was now opened for us.  Christ had dealt with our sin completely at that moment.  Hebrews reminds us that there is no longer any need for a sacrifice when our sin is forgiven.  Jesus our High Priest has dealt with every one of them on the cross.  Therefore we, who have been made righteous, can have confidence to enter God’s presence “by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…” (Heb.10:17-20).  The Lord is now the ‘gate’ through whom we can enter into the presence of God. 

            So how does the psalmist say we should enter this ‘gate’ that the Lord has opened for us?  The two verses either side of verse 20 give us the answer.  The psalmist requests in verse 19 that the Lord open the gate for him, then he “will enter and give thanks to the Lord.”  While verse 21 gives the reason, “I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.”  His thanksgiving is because the Lord heard and saved him. 

            The psalm gives us the reason for his prayer that had prompted his thanksgiving.  The Lord had helped and saved him in his many trials and difficulties.  We too can enter through the ‘gate’ with thanksgiving and praise as we think about all that the Lord has done for us, not only in saving us, but also in His help and faithfulness in loving, caring and providing for our every need.  As the old hymn puts it, Count your blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.  This shouldn’t really surprise us for as Ephesians 1:3 tells us God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  Let us learn to appreciate all that He has done for us, and respond with a thankful heart. 

Lessons learned in the hard times. Lesson 3

            This is the third of three key lessons that the Lord has been teaching me over the years. 

            This has taken longer for me to accept because it meant relinquishing that desire to control my life and hand it over to the Lord.  It takes faith to let go and allow the Father to have his way in our lives.  The more we hand over our decisions to him, the greater peace will be experienced.  There is still a long way to go and to reach a point where in every decision and action God is in total control may never happen.  But Mags Duggan has said it well when she says, “I’m discovering that, as I acknowledge and surrender to God control over the timing in my life, on my best days I am becoming more rested, less anxious, and more willing to wait for God to act.”[1]  That is what we can look forward to as we submit our lives to Him.

            As we have moved around and experienced many different situations, one thing has become clear – our Father is in control.  Of course we know that in our heads, but do we believe it?  So often there are personal motives at work when we want to be in control.  It may be pride, a desire for popularity or fear, or other possible reasons.  In so doing, we aren’t bringing glory to God but seeking the glory for ourselves. 

            As we see God at work in our lives and situations our faith in Him is strengthened. This enables us to  trust Him more.  When living in Japan we tried to see God working in the small things.  This was a great way to be encouraged.  The more we saw Him at work in the little things, the more able we were to commit bigger things into his hands. This has continued to be an ever increasing experience for us. 

Letting God set the agenda can be scary.  However, we can trust God to do what ultimately will be for our good.  With the present pandemic and being restricted to our homes, Some of us may have more time to sit and be quiet, to read and pray and to listen for God to speak.  However, sitting still and not doing can be quite stressful and uncomfortable, but with God’s help and grace He will enable us to be where we can hear His voice.

When we moved to Chippenham, I decided to stop doing and let my Father set the agenda for what I did each day.  As I sat doing nothing except to read the Bible, pray and listen, making myself available for whatever the Lord wanted, He gave me different opportunities.  This was quite a reversal for me a doer and workaholic who wants to get on with things.   So to wait for our Father to move was quite uncharacteristic.  The benefit of letting Him set the agenda was that I didn’t feel rushed off my feet like I usually did and felt more relaxed about life, knowing that I could trust Him with every situation.  Even the part time cleaning job at a school became a place where God challenged me about whether this was now what He wanted for me.  What were my motives for working?  What was the purpose of the job?  Was it to provide some financial benefit?  Was I really trusting God to provide?  Did He want me to use this time in other ways?  I prayed one day for clarity about the job and very shortly after we received a gift through the post that encouraged me and was part of the confirmation for giving up the job.  A few days after submitting my resignation we received another more substantial gift in the post which was totally unexpected, another clear indication that our Father could be trusted to provide.

            Even in the move back to Newent, it was reassuring to know that we could leave it with God and let him take control of the sale and move.  It wasn’t a good time to be moving house, but it was clearly His plan. We had four interested people within two weeks, had an offer soon after and we were able to make an offer on a place in Newent straight away and with only three people in the chain.  There were many others matters about the move for which we give thanks for – good weather on the day of the move, a couple of weeks of lovely weather as we settled in, that we were moved before the flooding in Gloucester and that we were settled before the lockdown.  So many things which point to our Father’s love and care poured out on us.  Even if it hadn’t gone smoothly we could still have rested assured that the Lord was in control and at the right time and in the right way He would have made His will clear to us as to what He is doing in our lives.

            What we need to remember though is that the Lord will not work in the same way for each person, nor will He do things the same way every time.  This is how God has been working in my life, and it may be different for you.  We can be encouraged by the fact that whatever the situation is, we can still leave it with Him and patiently wait His timing to work things out in our lives.

            When God called Samuel and he went to Eli, Eli didn’t tell him to stay up all night in prayer.  He told him to ‘lie down’ just as he had been doing.  “He coached Samuel in a way of readiness to respond instead of a striving urgency to entreat…. It comes down to seven words in the English language…. ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’  These words do not initiate the conversation.  They come in response to it.”[2]  This is God’s longing for each one of us and is the way to blessing, peace and loving the Lord joyfully. 

Post Script

            These three lessons are closely linked with prayer.  Prayer is our acknowledgement that we need help, that we can’t do it ourselves.  It is saying, “I can’t but you can!”  It is a step of faith and a humbling of ourselves in submission to the Lord.  It is through prayer that God can speak into our hearts as we meditate on His Word.  As we pray we allow God to bring our wills more in tune with His.  However, praying can be difficult.  Our first prayer request can be that God will give us a greater desire for Him in prayer.  Thomas Merton prayed, “MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me…. and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does, in fact, please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.”[3] As our relationship with the Lord deepens, we will see a transformation in how we respond to the circumstances that we are in and our trust and faith in God will grow.

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[1] Mags Duggan, God among the Ruins, p.78.

[2] J.D.Walt, Called:?! Following a Future Filled with the Possible (Kindle, Locations 459-469)

[3] Quoted in J.D.Walt, Called:?! Following a Future Filled with the Possible (Kindle, Locations 319-322)

Lessons learned in the hard times. Lesson 1

            God uses hard times, difficulties, pain and unusual situations to teach us things that will help us grow in our faith in God.  However, we can be quite slow in learning these things that He wants to reveal to us and patiently keeps drawing them to our attention.

            Over the years God has been teaching me three key lessons which can probably be applied to many situations that we face in life.  The first was learnt in our first year of marriage when we were on a literature team in Eire for fourteen months. One of my big concerns was how will I manage as a mission worker in Japan to which we were heading after our time in Ireland.  I was looking at senior mission workers that I knew and saw all the things they were doing and was quite fearful that I wouldn’t be able to do all they were doing.  While on the team, I had some free time while the others were taking a typing course.  I had been told that 2 Corinthians was Paul’s hand book for mission workers, so I thought that would be a good book to study. 

            This book certainly revealed Paul’s heart, his motives and experiences of God as he carried out God’s call on his life.  I learnt a lot and the study was a blessing to me because it helped me to see that it was God who was fitting me for my role as a mission worker.  In fact, it was because of Him that I could be a mission worker at all and do the work that He had for me to do.  I learnt that every area of my life was because of Him and I contributed nothing to the equation.

            God was there at my salvation.  It was God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," [making] his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).  Then in the next verse Paul tells us that “we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”(ch.4:7)  Paul tells us that our confidence is in God because it is He who is working.  Then he says in chapter 3:5-6,  “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant …”  Then in those well known verses in chapter 12, Paul had a ‘thorn’ that he felt was hindering his work for God and so asks God to take it away.  But what was God’s answer?   "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (12:9-10)  So Paul thanked God for his weaknesses, and it is the same with us for when we are weak we too need to rely all the more on God’s grace and power.

            This was an important lesson to learn, that really all aspects of our lives are under his control and He is working out His purposes through us as we trust and allow Him that freedom to work in us.  We have the assurance that when we do this God can and will use us to His glory.  In Philippians 1:6, we are reminded that, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  And further, it is “God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”  (Philippian 2:13)  A burden was lifted by this truth – if God calls he will also equip and provide all that we need to carry out His purpose and will for our lives and so with greater confidence I was able to leave for Japan in 1976.

There was one further aspect to this lesson that happened during this time in Ireland which helped me to see clearly that I could trust God with the work that He would give me to do when we got to Japan.  As it was a team situation, living together for the 14 months did add pressure on our relationships, not least between the director and the team members.  As team leader I felt responsible for the care and well being of the team as we faced hard situations that we all were struggling with.  How do I deal with this?  I spoke with the director and trying to resolve the issues that we sensed were present but without any apparent change to the situation.  I felt that I should not be defeated by this but have victory in this situation.  In struggling with this over some three months or so, the Lord one day made it very clear to me that he had already given me the victory but that I was trying to gain victory with my own effort.  I repented of my unbelief and self effort and submitted my life to God for his victory already received.  The problem didn’t go away but my heart attitude was changed and I was given the grace to accept it and experience God’s peace in the situation.    

This was another step in helping me to realize that I needn’t fear about going to Japan because God would be with me, helping, enabling and carrying out the work He wanted to do through me.  I didn’t need to be like other mission workers but I could be myself and do what God had called me to do.  This was an amazing release. 

By David Dexter