I Know It Hurts

Suffering.  One of the saddest words spoken by mankind.  Trials, difficulties, hardship, pain...we all go through it.  Some seem to have more than their fair share, if there is such a thing.  I guess my biggest gripe with it all is when it seems pointless.  I understand, (although that doesn't make it any easier to experience) suffering for the Gospel.  Like Paul, like Peter, like John and Jesus Himself.  Like those in countries where persecution for being a Christian is an everyday experience....You can see the reason behind it.  But where we suffer with no definition, where we suffer and it seems endless and random...I struggle with that.  For myself, but especially when I see those I love endlessly embattled and battered....it breaks my heart and I question God.  I question His purpose and His reasoning and sometimes even His love.  

I have a friend who seems to have never ending trials.  Trials in every area of their life.  My heart breaks for them.  I've prayed for years, I've cried out to the Lord and yet the hits just keep coming.  I know God often uses difficulties to drive us to Him, to correct and discipline us.  And when we don't respond He may even turn up the heat, but I also know that as humans we don't appreciate this, and sometimes it even has the opposite affect.  And we lose faith and hope.  When does it end?   I was praying about this as I was driving today.  I still don't have the answer.  Not sure I ever will.  But as usual God had a song to lighten my heart and remind me of who He is.  

I don't know God's plans,  I don't understand His ways.  Isaiah 55:8-9 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  But the God who reminds of His infinite sovereignty and superiority also tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  And in Romans 8:28  And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.  And we are given a glimpse into His purpose in Romans 8:29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  

He allows things in our lives so that we learn to shed the worldliness and selfishness that comes from being a human being born under this world's system and influence and instead become polished to reflect Jesus to a lost and dying world.  Discipline is also purpose.  Hebrews 12:5-13  5 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?   He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.  6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”  7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9 Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?  10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  12 So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

But in all of this, whether suffering comes from polishing, discipline, living in a horrible fallen world, from other people's sin, from our own sin, from demonic attack....whatever is behind it one thing is always true:  God's love never fails.  Romans 8:38-39  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Suffering and pain are so very, very hard.  Especially when it seems to dog our every step every day.  My heart hurts so much for those who live with this.  

Lord, You know our days, our struggles, our heartbreaks, our loss, our pain.  My heart comes to You heave and broken for those who suffer so much.  I plead for Your help and Your deliverance.  But I know You sometimes want us to go through the fire, go through the high waters....Lord, help each of us to hang on to even the smallest bit of faith.  Lord, give my friend and anyone else in the dark place the ability to not give up.  You are sovereign and Your are so much bigger, wiser and everything else more than us.  Lord, we don't understand.  We hurt so much.  Father help.  Just help.  In Jesus' saving Name  Amen.  

Pray.  Stay in the Word.  

Spiritual Intimacy, from Mom

Okay, so here is the post that was interrupted a couple of weeks ago.  Let's see if the timing for it is now...according to the Lord.  LOL

Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the Lord with all your heart,  And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

WAYS:  suggests specific opportunities a person my encounter on a recurring basis.  The most common opportunity we experience regularly is a new day.  It is suggested in the passage that in all our days we should acknowledge God.  

ACKNOWLEDGE:  Highest level of acknowledgement is in "direct intimate contact" with God in prayer.

Intimacy with God through prayer.  Focus on finding "intimacy" with God.  Devote oneself to know Jesus.  Pray to become all consumed in the pursuit--focus and desire it.  Become challenged to seek after God's own heart.  

Philippians 3:7-11  7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Be willing to lose everything to know Christ.  Make "knowing Christ" our main goal.  Know that there will be sacrifice and unselfish living.  

Philippians 3:12-14  12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Aim to achieve the goal God has set before you.  Spare no cost to do this.  Especially "self."  Dwell on others.  Spare no effort to know Christ.  Pray for determination and follow through.  Do not give up.  

From me.

This whole passage puts me in mind of the pearl of great price.  Matthew 13:45-46 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, 46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.  That is the way we are to seek God.  Sacrificially.  Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  Whole heartedly.  Isaiah 55:6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.  Urgently. 

Seek purposefully.  Seek consistently.  Seek in faith.  Seek faithfully.  Seek determinedly.  Seek patiently.  Seek steadfastly.  Seek continually.  

Knowing the Lord, takes work, determination and time.  Maybe you have to get up earlier or spend lunchtime with Him instead of with others at work.  Maybe some leisure time needs to be sacrificed.  At first these things may seem hard.  At first seeking may feel dry and your understanding unclear and darkened.  But follow through is the key.  Not giving up is a necessity.  And I can tell you from experience it is so worth it.  And it is a never ending experience.  The road to knowing the Lord may come with stops and starts but it is by far the best and most wonderful path to walk.  And the more you grow the more your desire to spend time and effort grows.  Some days it truly is a sacrifice....maybe you're tired, swamped, feeling down, and the last thing you want to do is open your Bible and spend time in prayer, but I've found that a lot of those times are the times I needed to be "seeking" the most.  And we need to do our own seeking.  We can't rely on other's study.  We have to spend the time ourselves, in study, in prayer, in communion with the Lord.  

New to this?  Start small.  It's fine.  Just start.  In the beginning, when I started seeking the Lord, I found that reading books by trusted Christian writers was the best way for me to start learning (I love Joyce Meyer's stuff).  If they came with a work book even better!  I could pray about what I was reading, talk to God about it, think about the questions that were asked and jot down notes in a journal.  Another good way I found early on was doing word studies.  I had a problem with bitterness....so I looked up all the verses on bitterness and resentment and poured over the ones that spoke to me, jotting down my thoughts and prayers, along with crying out to the Lord.  I learned to see His heart on these things.  And in that way got to know Him more.  And lastly one of my study tools draw closer to the Lord is just being in the Bible.  Sometimes this is intimidating to new believers or new studiers.  I know it was to me.   Now I am comfortable taking apart a book of the Bible (although  I wouldn't try Revelation or Ezekiel myself LOL).  I can look up words that speak to me or that confuse me from a passage in a concordance and see what the Greek or Hebrew mean.  I can get lost in this now!  

All of this, coupled with lots of prayer draws us closer to the Lord, brings us into an intimate relationship with Him that lasts beyond the study time. Nothing happens overnight.  My own journey has taken many, many years and I still have quite a ways to go.  And sometimes I get lazy!  But I encourage you to dig in.  Isaiah 50:7  “For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.  Be determined!  And remember, once you really decide to do this, you will face opposition.  Satan will set up road blocks, spiritual, physical, using other people, our own emotions.  Be prepared to fight through them.  There is nothing greater than knowing our Lord and Savior.  

Thank You Lord that You, the God of the universe, the ending, the eternal, the holy, the awesome, the terrible, the righteous, all knowing, all powerful, omnipresent, the everything, desire to know us and for us to know You.  You desire us to call You Father, and be in intimate fellowship with You.  This truly is unfathomable to me.  We are so small, such tiny specks in the scheme of everything, and yet You don't see us as insignificant.  That we have this honor and privilege amazes me.  I have no words to adequately describe how this feels.  Lord, give us hearts to seek You.  Help us to understand and grow to know You more and more.  We need You.  We love You.  Sometimes we get lazy, distracted and rushed...forgive us and turn us once again to You.  It is in our beautiful Saviors Name I pray.  Amen.

Start today.