5 TRUTHS YOU MUST REMEMBER DURING SUFFERING AND PAIN

YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM OF YOUR ENVIRONMENT

READ PSALM 53

Psalm 53:3

They have all fallen away;

together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one. 

God has made His evaluation; those who do not recognize Him are fools. God is watching them, completely aware of all they do. Their thoughts and intents are corrupt, and consequently their actions are evil. Their lust and desires drive them.

At birth, every human being falls into this category. Even though all are not equally evil in their behavior, they are continually sinning by nature.

For anyone to expect anything different is foolish. For anyone to expect reformation, apart from heart transformation, is also foolish. As a consequence, living in this world is arduous for those who seek to please God.

Many believers spend too much time complaining about this reality and fretting over it. It is easy, as we deal with the fall-out, to forget God’s role in all of this.

Every action of man is filtered through God’s meticulous and particular sovereignty. We are never victims of our environment. God is carefully allowing the consequences of man’s evil in our lives, always with perfect and eternal purposes in them.

1 Peter 5:10-11

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

1 - Pain produces repentance and godliness.

2 Corinthians 7:9-10

 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 

2 - Difficulties drive us into His arms, away from the world.

Through this, His grace and strength brings glory to His name. Our suffering transforms us into the image of His Beloved Son.

Romans 5:3-5

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. 

3 - Pain and suffering prepare us to be helpers to other believers and shining lights for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

 

4 - Suffering causes us to desire heaven.

Romans 8:18

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 

5 - Suffering causes us to rely on God. 

Our suffering is understood by Christ. He will never allow us to suffer without giving us the grace we need to persevere in the trial.

Hebrews 2:18

For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

Even though the world seems to be oblivious of the work of God, we must not forget these truths. The Israelites needed to be reminded, too, and they were able to trust in God’s final victory.

Psalm 53:6

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!

When God restores the fortunes of his people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

I know that many who read these devotionals are going through very difficult times. May your day be filled with greater resolve and purpose, as you reflect on God’s eternal work in you, His final victory, and your eternal destiny.

LIVING WITH FOOLS, BUT NOT AS FOOLS!

DON’T LET DIFFICULTIES DRIVE YOUR FEELINGS,

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE TRUTH

READ PSALM 53

Psalm 53:1-2

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;

there is none who does good.

God looks down from heaven

on the children of man

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God. 

We live in a world where the majority of people have clearly said that there is no God by negating His existence, or by living according to a god they have, themselves, created.

Romans 1:19-23

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Because men have ignored God, they follow their own futile thoughts and foolish hearts. Not one man naturally lives for God or desires to please Him, and evil is the normal result of following their desires.

But God is watching, aware of every single act and every single desire and thought. Paul reminds us of what drives every man:

Ephesians 2:1-3

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 

Every man follows the crowd, they follow the leader of this world, and ultimately they follow their own natural desires.

This is the world we live in, and often we are surprised and frustrated by this reality. I know that there are many who live on the brink of depression because of the evil they have encountered or they face daily. Some live their lives, angry and bitter about the things they are facing. We should hate evil, but for the right reasons, not merely because it disrupts our own comfort.

Paul reminds us that we were living our lives and were being driven by the same desires, before Christ kindly transformed us with His undeserved amazing grace:

Ephesians 2:4-10

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

Dear friends we live in an evil world, and that should not surprise us. What should surprise us that we have received grace by no merit of our own, but fully because of God’s mercy. We did not do anything to attract it, invite it, or merit it! As we get up each morning, these thoughts should overwhelm us, rather than complaining in self-pity because we are enduring some measure of hardship because of the evil of others.

As gratitude fills our hearts, our devotion to God should grow strong. We should give ourselves daily to living by His power in a way that pleases Him, not according to the desires of our own corrupt hearts.

We should invite other believers to come alongside us to pray with us and for us, that we would not be overcome by the evil of others. We should remember that, at times, the evil we receive may well be a consequence of our own sin. Feel free to write to me, and I will be glad to pray for you.

We should also be driven to witness. We can complain of our government, our family, our jobs, our neighbors - the list can go on and on, but the only hope is for God to save them and transform their lives.

Remember that our goal should never be our comfort, but the glory of God. God is aware of every evil done; He has called us to live for Him and to proclaim Him in a difficult world.

Are these high callings driving your life today?

WE ARE PERFECTLY LOVED, EVEN IN THE MIDST OF EVIL

THE SITUATION IS NEVER SO DARK THAT GOD CANNOT SEE WHAT IS BEST FOR US

READ PSALM 52

PSALM 52

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A MASKIL OF DAVID, WHEN DOEG, THE EDOMITE, CAME AND TOLD SAUL, “DAVID HAS COME TO THE HOUSE OF AHIMELECH.”

1 Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?

The steadfast love of God endures all the day.

2 Your tongue plots destruction,

like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.

3 You love evil more than good,

and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah

4 You love all words that devour,

O deceitful tongue.

We can read the story of Doeg in 1 Samuel 21, 22. This man not only perpetrated evil against David, but also killed the priests who had helped David and his men. Those who knew David were very aware that he had been faithful to Saul, and did not deserve Doeg’s hatred.

Psalm 52:5-7

5 But God will break you down forever;

he will snatch and tear you from your tent;

he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

6 The righteous shall see and fear,

and shall laugh at him, saying,

7 “See the man who would not make

God his refuge,

but trusted in the abundance of his riches

and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

David had full trust in the love of God, so he knew that God would do what is just and right, in due time. God is certainly neither indifferent nor unaware of those who plan and do evil. Their rebelliousness will lead them to destruction.

Psalm 52:8-9

8 But I am like a green olive tree

in the house of God.

I trust in the steadfast love of God

forever and ever.

9 I will thank you forever,

because you have done it.

I will wait for your name, for it is good,

in the presence of the godly.

David trusted in God’s eternal love. He was grateful for God’s sovereign control. He knew there was peace in the presence and protection of God.

God’s people do suffer by the hands of evil ones. As we watch men have a temporary upper hand, we should never lose sight that God is in total control. He has eternal purposes that we cannot know or even understand. When evil happens, we must trust the character and purposes of our eternal and loving God. God did not spare His Son for our salvation, so we know His great love will continue to be steadfast.

I am reminded of Leonard Hopkins, a faithful missionary who, while serving God in Mexico, was brutally murdered. He knew well that he ministered in a dangerous place, in the midst of evil men. But he probably did not expect that the man he had helped for weeks would turn against him. We grieve for his widow, his children, and those who loved him, but we cannot overlook the fact that God was sovereign, even in this. And as He ushered Leonard into heaven, He had eternal purposes in mind. And for now, the Hopkins family’s testimony for Christ is powerful, as they continue to serve Him.

Dear friend, you might be suffering at this time because of the evil of some enemies of God, and you might be tempted to just look at yourself as a victim. By allowing feelings of revenge to grip your heart, you may even be rebelling against God. This psalm was written to bring you back to the right perspective.

God is in total control of everything; He has eternal purposes in mind. He loves you perfectly and eternally. His justice will prevail. You can find peace and comfort in God’s care. Our faith and gratitude should rest in the perfect character and wisdom of God.

No one can touch us apart from God’s perfect will.

John 10:27-30

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”

Romans 8:38-39

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have these promises; we can have peace in the midst of evil people. In Christ, we are perfectly and particularly loved.