“Good Luck!”
Oh! You mean: “Best Wishes” or “I hope everything goes well.” As Christians, we really don’t like to think that we would put our trust in Luck instead of the Lord. We don’t want a four-leaf clover or rabbit’s foot for luck. God loves His children and He protects us from harm, right?
Why then do Christians suffer? An illness or injury causes us physical pain. Words and actions of others wound us. We hear many answers: “We live in a fallen world, that’s how things go. Who can Know the mind of God?” If it seems to you that these comments are not enough, you are right. God invites us to know Him in a rich personal way, as a loving Father. So, you ask, “I believe He is powerful, that He sees my suffering, and that He cares for me. Why did something bad happen to harm me? When does the hurting stop?”
To get an idea of our own situation, whatever it is, we should always check the Scriptures first to see what God says about it. From cover to cover, the Bible is full of stories of human suffering.
There are some things of which you can be certain.
Our God is a God of order. He is described that way in the Bible, and His Creation cries “Amen!” For the Christian, random acts of chance DON’T HAPPEN. Everything has a cause. That is the kind of world God made. Their can be no circumstance of which He is unaware, or which is beyond His Power.
God promises that His children WILL suffer. “We must Go through many hardships.” “Consider it pure joy, when you face trials of many kinds,” and “In this world you will have trouble.”
Our Good God does no evil. He may allow the evil in this world to touch our lives, to cause us pain, but, “God cannot be tempted with evil and He himself tempts no one.”
“He remembers that we are dust.” God WILL deliver us. He promises, over and over that He will. He WILL.
The Bible describes two types of pain which God assures us that we, as His children, MUST experience.
God brings us the pain of Training. This hurts! Think of a coach who makes the athlete do sit-ups, the commander who has his soldiers march, the mother whose firm grip keeps the child from traffic, the teacher who drills and grills the students, The pain is not the goal. The training is not the goal. The pain is part of the process of forming, of shaping and strengthening. Each one has a goal which is better reached by the training and discipline of many years.
What does God want from us, anyway?
He wants us to love Him, to trust Him, to depend on Him to provide for all our needs, to lean on Him for strength, run to Him for comfort, to desire Him above all other lovers. He wants us to become like Jesus. We cry out in anguish, “Abba, Father!” The trials which God brings into our lives cause the pain of training which turns our hearts toward Him. They are the tight ropes which tie the rose to the trellis, rather than allow it to grow wild. They are the prods of the shepherd to keep the lamb on the path, rather than allow it to wander into destruction. We sometimes reject the discipline of God’s training and
stubbornly go our own way. Then our Lord deals with us in another way.
God brings us the pain of Correction. This hurts, too! Often, it hurts even more than the training. The athlete runs extra laps, the soldier has K.P., the child gets a spanking, the student stays after school. Once again, the pain is not the goal. The punishment is not the goal. These small punishments are given in order to avoid greater pain later. The pain is part of the process of REforming, of REshaping and strengthening. These are the shears which the Gardener uses to trim away the broken or dead limbs, and the wild, or sickly branches of the rose.
NOW what does God want from us? He still wants us to love and trust Him, but He must burn away at the sin in our lives. We know that often, the suffering we experience is pain that we ourselves have caused. God tells us: “A man reaps what he sows,” and calls us to repent from our sins. In Jeremiah we read, “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.” If we continue to resist the Lord’s correction, He administers a stronger medicine to cure a more deadly sickness.... We can be sure that He will love his children enough to faithfully point us toward restoration, though it causes us severe
suffering.
So, what does a hurting Christian do?
Determine if this suffering is to train or correct. Examine your heart, search the
scriptures, pray, consider the words of godly advice. It may be that you must repent and choose a new course of action, thoughts, or attitude. It may help you to write things down as the Lord reveals them to you, and to help you to stay on track.
Sometimes God uses the Pain caused by outside forces (other people, or a disaster, or the negative circumstances of the world) to test us. If it is clear that you have not caused your suffering, it may be that this is the time for you to hold fast and trust God. We are encouraged to continue to do what is right, and not loose heart. The drought causes the tree to grow deep roots. It is through trials that the faithful learn perseverance and patience. God says “I have tried you in the fire of affliction.”
In any case, God seeks the same result: He will strengthen our faith and make us more like Jesus. And He will be glorified.
