Tag: pain

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Galatians Devotionals

In the fullness of time

Galatians

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7, ESV)

Sometimes we wonder why God allows so much pain, suffering, and evil in this world. Ever since sin came into the world, humans have been under these things, and the words of that old carol resonate with us.

And in despair I bowed my head.
“There is no peace on earth.” I said.

“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

But in the “fullness of time,” at just the right time, God sent his Son.

His Son was born of a woman. He became human as we are. The pain, suffering, and evil we face every day, Jesus himself faced.

The law of God that we were unable to keep and were condemned by, Jesus lived under perfectly.

And then he went to the cross, taking upon himself the curse the law demanded, not for his own sin, but for ours. (Galatians 3:13-14)

And by taking that curse upon himself, he purchased us for God, not to be his slaves, but to be his sons and daughters.

Now for those of us who have put our trust in him, the right Jesus had to call God, “Abba, Father,” has become ours. We are heirs of God now, and coheirs with Christ.

And in the fullness of time, Jesus will come again. On that day, he will indeed be “Immanuel, God with us.” We will be his people, and he will be our God.

And when we see him, he will wipe away every tear from our eyes, “and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away.” (Revelation 21:2-4)

No, God is not slow in keeping his promises. For as that old carol concludes,

God is not dead, nor does he sleep.
The wrong shall fail; the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.

Categories
John John 11

Uncovering our pain before Jesus

Mary of Bethany
www.LumoProject.com

So often in our lives, we go through pain and hurt, but instead of dealing with it, we bury it.

We try to ignore the pain. Or we cover it over with other things, busyness, food, pleasure, or whatever else we can find.

But the pain becomes like a rot in our souls, eating away at us from the inside out.

What can we do?

Mary and Martha had to go through that. Their brother had died. Worse, they knew that if Jesus had only come sooner, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. But for reasons they couldn’t understand, Jesus delayed his coming.

And so they went through feelings of pain at the loss of their brother, and perhaps feelings of betrayal by Jesus.

Both said the same thing when they finally came face to face with him. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, it is possible that when Martha said this, she meant it not in an accusing manner, but as a way of saying, “I still believe in you. I’m not turning my back on you.”

With Mary, however, I don’t think there can be any doubt that she said it with lots of pain and hurt in her voice. And when Jesus saw this, John tells us,

He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. (John 11:33)

Why? Part of it may have been the empathy he felt for Mary. But another part of him may have also been hurt by her lack of faith in him.

We see the same response in verse 38 when other people started to question his failure to come in time to help Lazarus.

So he went to the place where Lazarus was buried, and he told Martha,

Take away the stone. (John 11:39a)

Martha’s response was very understandable.

But, Lord… by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. (John 11:39)

But Jesus replied,

Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? (John 11:40)

Martha was reluctant. There seemed no point in rolling away the stone. Lazarus was dead and gone. But she obeyed, and Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

What can we learn from this?

What hurts or pains have you buried in your heart? What bitterness do you hold to in your heart because of it? Bitterness toward others? Bitterness even toward God?

Jesus says, remove the stone. Uncover the pain and bitterness in your heart. It’s rotting there. So uncover it.

And if you will just believe in Jesus, you will see the glory of God in your life.

The question is: “Will you?”

Categories
Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 9 Matthew Matthew 17

Afraid to ask

The gospels

In this passage, we see the second time in which Jesus speaks plainly to his disciples about what was going to happen to him in Jerusalem. He couldn’t have been more clear.

He said, “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.” (Luke 9:44).

And he told them specifically that he would be betrayed, killed, and raised to life on the third day.

The way Luke records the disciples’ response strikes me.

But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. (Luke 9:45)

Looking back as Christians, it’s very difficult for us to understand why the disciples would have trouble grasping this. It wasn’t like he was speaking in parables. He told them in a very straightforward manner, “This is what is going to happen.”

Why couldn’t they understand something that Jesus said so plainly? Luke says the reason was that it was hidden from them.

Why was it hidden from them? I think the main reason is they weren’t ready to hear the truth. They were still totally focused on the idea that he would be setting up his kingdom in Israel soon, setting the Jews free from Roman rule.

We’ll see this in a couple of blogs from now.

But because their minds were so focused on their way of thinking, they couldn’t understand the plain words of Jesus. What’s more, they were afraid to ask what Jesus meant.

Why were they afraid? I don’t think they were afraid of Jesus’ rebuke. I think they were afraid that he was speaking plainly.

And they were so focused on the negative parts, that he would be betrayed and die, that they couldn’t see the positive, that he would rise again.

What does this mean for us?

I think that sometimes, we get so set in our way of thinking, that we can’t see what Jesus is saying to us, even when he is speaking plainly.

What he says goes so contrary to the way we’re thinking or feeling, that we think, “He can’t really mean what I think he’s saying, can he?”

Yet we’re afraid to ask because if he tells us that he means what he says, it means we need to change. We need to change our way of thinking, our behavior, or both. And that can be scary.

For example, God says “Don’t be yoked with unbelievers.” (2 Corinthians 6:14)

In other words, we shouldn’t be in relationships where we are tied to people in such a way that they pull us away from God and his ways.

But when many Christians who date non-Christians, or are even engaged to non-Christians see this passage, it scares them.

“It doesn’t really mean what I think it’s saying, is it?”

And they are afraid to ask God, because it might mean they have to break up with that person, when they don’t want to.

Or when God says, “Flee sexual immorality.” (1 Corinthians 6:18), some people think, “Does this mean sleeping with a person before marriage is wrong?”

And they’re afraid to ask because they are sleeping with their partner.

Let’s be frank. Truth can be painful. And change can be excruciating. But sometimes we get so focused on the negative, that we forget the positive.

The same passage that says that we should not be unequally yoked, says that God will be a Father to us, and we his sons and daughters.

The same passage that says that we should flee sexual immorality says that Christ has given us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us. That we are his temples.

These are the things we should focus on.

So let us not be afraid to ask what a scripture means. Let’s embrace it. Let’s live it. And while there may be pain in the short run, in the long run, we will find blessing.

Categories
Job

When friends mourn

Job

In the book of Job, we see three of his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  When they heard about Job’s troubles, they decided together to go and visit him.  And when they saw the state he was in, it says,

They began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads.  Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.

No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.  (Job 2:12-13)

Although there are a lot of negative things we can say about his friends throughout the book of Job, one thing we can say is that they truly cared about him.

And in the first few days they were with him, they did the best thing they could.  They shut up and just stayed with him.

When they got in trouble was when they started opening their mouths and started spouting off their “wisdom” to him.

I think there’s something to be said about that.  When our friends are mourning because of the troubles they are going through, most times, they don’t need our words of advice.  They don’t need our “wisdom.”  More than anything else, they just need us to be there and to listen.

Sometimes they will say stupid things in their pain and anguish.  Sometimes they may even question God and his wisdom.

But for the most part, they don’t need us to condemn them or criticize them for voicing their pain.  They just need us to be there to understand them and to sympathize with them.

And if we’ll just do that, showing God’s love to them by just being there and understanding them, they’ll usually come around, and recognize God’s presence and love through us.

Paul puts it this way,

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  (Romans 12:15)

So when people around us are struggling through loss and pain, let us use our mouths much less, and use our ears and arms of comfort much more.