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Feb 08
2008
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Pressing in Through Painful NewsPosted by Bryan in suffering   |
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Today was a heavy day. I received two emails today with bad news from friends of ours who are expecting children.
One wife is about 26 weeks along and they found out their daughter-to-be has an ovarian cyst. They can be fatal and depending on the growth (or lack therof) there are no real optimistic treatments.
Another wife lost her baby at about 18 weeks--just two weeks behind my own wife. She, her husband and daughter are in shock and grieving deeply.
These kinds of emails are sobering.
This kind of pain comes when you least expect it. And though it did not strike our home today, there is no guarantee that it won't tomorrow.
And so I ask myself, "how would I respond?" I don't have any good answers--none that would likely help my friends.
Would I weep so hard that I am out of control so that the slightest phone call or faintest reminder would wreck me?
Or would I accept it too coldly and feel no emotion.
Obviously, the stages of grief would come: anger, denial, bargaining, acceptance and all of that. But the bigger question is: what will I think of God? Will I continue to trust him through it? Or would I doubt his goodness?
Lord Jesus, comfort these hurting friends and give us tears and love and wisdom to pass along to them.
And hearts full of prayer.
Amen.
written by Bryan Hansen , February 12, 2008
Indeed, pressing into God and his will are important in these times. The other thing we must always remember is that while that question is popular (Why do good things happen to bad people?) it starts in the wrong place. There are no good people. We are by nature children of wrath, not children of God. And there is so much mercy around us that we take for granted. If our meditations on his mercies and graces are dim in the land of blessing, then when the dark cloud of trial comes, it too easily eclipses the radiance of his grace to us.
Like Bob Merrill shared last week in services, Americans pray for trials to be removed. Others pray for God to teach them in the trial.
And I pray that God will teach these friends more about his mercies and his character. But more than that, I pray that those who know them would have the heart and hands to come not so much with words, but with tears, and embraces as we mourn together over this loss.
written by Tammy Wold , February 12, 2008
No matter what we do, no matter how hard we try to be in control, we are not in control. Bad things happen to good people.
One of the major themes in the first chapter of the book of James is persevering when life doesn't make sense. So why do bad things happen to good people? What's interesting is that nowhere in the Bible does it ever try to answer this question. The oldest book in the Bible is the book of Job. And through that whole book, there's Job, who in the first part is identified as a righteous man who lives his life to please God. So if anything could go wrong, Job is one of those cases where everything that could go wrong, does go wrong. They even have a party and the roof caves in and kills all of his children. He develops some kind of disease where he has a constant flowing of puss and all of his friends throughout the book of Job are saying, "Job, think about it, you must have ticked God off because God wouldn't let this kind of thing happen to you if you were a good person." And the best line in the book of Job is this: Job says, "Even if God slay me, I will put my trust in Him."
Then there's the book of Ecclesiastes. You get to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes and it says, "Fear God and keep His commandments."
James 1:1-2 says, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds." It doesn't say there, "if" you face trials of many kinds", it says to expect it.
Faith doesn't remove us from the world. As a matter of fact, Jesus said He didn't pray to remove us from the world. Faith does not exempt the faithful person from the consequences of living in a broken world. In John 16:33, Jesus said, "In the world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." Faith doesn't remove us from the problems of the world. Faith empowers us to excel and live through the problems of the world.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 says, "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body." God is not going to take us out of the problems that everyone else has to go through. It's the way that we'll go through those problems and the faith that we'll have in those problems that others will see the life of Christ in us.
The question for us is not, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" The question for us is "What is the will and purpose of God?" What is God's plan? Romans 8:28 says, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." It doesn't say that all things are good. We also need to understand that God never causes pain or evil. But God allows these things to happen. In Isaiah 55:8, God says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways."
God is able to take all of the difficulties we face and redeem them for a greater outcome.
