“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
Suffering is not optional in this world. All of us will have our share (and then some) of sorrow and loss. When Jesus comes back and makes all things new there will be no more sadness or pain or death or disease. But for now it’s not a question of if you will suffer, only how and when – and how you will respond.
Kristin and I recently read Laura story’s inspiring book When God Doesn’t Fix it. She was only married to Martin for one year when his symptoms started: falling asleep suddenly and at random times. Tests revealed a brain tumor. Surgery was “successful,” but resulted in complications. Martin had to re-learn basic things like how to eat and walk. His vision was impaired as was his short term memory. Weeks turned into months of rehab.
“I thought it would all get back to normal… Here’s the road… we’re gonna take a detour. About a year into it, my sister said to me, ‘You know, I think the detour is actually the road.’”
Laura ends each chapter with a myth and a truth. One myth is that in suffering God is punishing you. The truth is that God is calling you closer to Him and is working in your heart and life. Another myth is that your plan for your life is best. The truth is that God’s plans for you are better.
Listen to the song above and reflect on these beautiful lyrics that God gave Laura at a gas station.
We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand
To ease our sufferingAnd all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops?
What if Your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?
God hears. He listens to our every cry. He knows what we need before we ask. He commands us to ask in prayer, but even as we do so to trust Him as our loving Father in heaven who knows what is best. And what is truly and ultimately best for all of us is HIM. He refuses to give us lesser things.
One of the most misunderstood and misapplied verses in Scripture is from Psalm 37.
“Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:3-4
What this verse absolutely does not promise is that God will give you whatever you want. Nor does it set up conditions through which you can manipulate Him to give you what you want.
What these verses do promise is that if you truly learn to trust in the Lord and walk with Him, if you learn to really delight in the Lord above all other things then you will find that you already have the deepest desires of your heart. God will have become the desire of your heart, and He will always give you more of Himself.
Look at the two New Testament passages that speak the most about suffering and see what they actually promise.
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3-5
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
James 1:2-4
Both of these passages instruct us to not only endure suffering but to rejoice in it. How in the world can we rejoice in our sorrow and pain? Only as we draw closer to the Lord who meets us in the sadness and helps us grow through it.
That is what Laura and Martin learned through their season of trial, and it is what they continue to learn. What we want in a time of pain and distress is for God to just fix it. Make it go away. Bring things back to how they were, in line with our desires and plans. What if He doesn’t fix it?
Will we still trust Him? Will we still believe in His goodness, power and love? Will we still walk with Him?
Listen to how the song Blessings ends.
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst
This world can’t satisfy?And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise?
Romans 5 talks about endurance. James 1 talks about steadfastness. Romans 5 promises God’s love being poured into our hearts. James 1 promises maturity, even completion if we let God work in and through our suffering.
Look at what Peter promises when we suffer.
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:6-9
Again we are called to rejoice. In this context our joy is in our eternal inheritance and God’s power to preserve us through our sufferings. But here Peter focuses on the refining effect of suffering, like how gold is purified and tested in a hot furnace. What suffering in our lives accomplishes is to reveal the genuineness of our faith. Your precious trust in the Lord; far more valuable than gold or silver or jewels. That authentic faith is what brings great glory and honor to King Jesus when He comes back. And for faith to be faith it must be in things unseen. And as we trust in the Lord with all we are – even through the hardest times in life – there is a special joy that comes in the midst of that hardship.
So thank you, brothers and sisters, for walking with us through this valley of struggle and fear. Thank you for trusting the Lord with us and sharing your faith and hope with us. We are holding fast to the Lord and trusting in His fatherly goodness. And we are so thankful that you are holding us up with your prayer and support every step of the way.
Whatever the raindrops and tears in your life right now, we pray the Lord will give you the faith to see that they really are His blessings in disguise.