Devotional:
A couple of years ago while I was in university at Southern Illinois University, well after midnight, I began sobbing uncontrollably while lying in bed. I didn’t know if it was stress, life related, or my mind was going back to a hard time in my life. I didn’t know if God was trying to get through to me; so that I would turn to Him or was it Satan taunting my thoughts because of the lack of sleep I have gotten.
How do we handle problems that seem too large for out human grasp? How can we recover our spiritual balance in such situations, and gain the assurance that we are following a divinely ordered path forward?
In my own desperate hour, I somehow was drawn to the apostle Paul’s struggle with his “thorn in the flesh”—that relentless, excruciating problem for which there seemed to be no promise of immediate relief. Paul found his spiritual footing in acknowledging three important truths:
God is still in charge.
Satan is not in charge.
God uses our problems to achieve His intended purpose.
1. God is still in charge. On the surface, a phrase like “there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me” (2 Cor. 12:7), make it seem as if God had abandoned Paul and left him to the wiles of Satan. But nothing could have been further from the truth!
Remember, this is the same Paul who penned Romans 8:28: “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Paul saw clearly that all that was happening.
2. Satan is not in charge. Satan and his emissaries are, in one sense, mere messenger boys—unable to do anything without God’s sovereign disposition. That is a hard truth even for some devoted Christians. Yet, Paul affirms that as debilitating and discouraging as his own problem was, this “messenger of Satan” was in fact given for a greater purpose—one that would result in the maturing of his own humility and faith. Resulting in God’s greater glory and honor.
3. God uses our problems to achieve His intended purpose. Problems that involve long-term suffering—whether spiritual, emotional, physical, or all of the above—are often accompanied by these logical questions: Why? What good end could a loving Lord possibly achieve through this suffering? Why do believers suffer when so many who reject Him seem free of such an experience?
Suffering is never punishment—Christ took all the punishment for out sin on the cross “so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). A mature faith knows that suffering is actually a discipline that enables the believer to share in Christ’s holiness and ultimately yields that “peaceful fruit of righteousness” (see Heb. 12:3-11). We are to consider it joy when we encounter trials, for “the testing of [our] faith produces endurance,” and to “let endurance have its perfect result, so that [we]may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:3-4).
As we end this study; pray this prayer with me:
Heavenly Father, I know that my "thoughts are not your thoughts, [and] neither are your ways my ways" as you declare, but this is a HARD situation to be in. I don't understand it and I honestly wish it away. But you are in control You have a plan that is better than mine ever could be, even as difficult as it seems at the moment. Remind me that you are God and you care more about my future than I ever could. Hold me as I fall apart, and build me back up. Thank you for everything you've done for me. In Jesus' precious name, Amen.
Verses to look up:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete , not lacking anything.
James 1:3-4
All the love,
Cheyenne
Break The Comfort Box! 