Skip to main content

Two Sides

           When hard pressed, I cried to the Lord; he brought me into a spacious place. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 118:5-6)

         And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

           But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. (Job 23:10)


There are two sides to these passages. The first is that God is in control. He has promised to protect us and to be with us until the end of the age. Mortals cannot condemn a person to eternity without God’s blessing (AKA Hell.) No matter what humans may do to us, it does not change our relationship with God and He can heal all wounds.

On the other side, there is the reality that mortals can cause great pain, and that God’s purposes and tests can involve things that can and do destroy us. If they didn’t, David would not have needed to cry to the Lord and Job would have an easy life that didn’t involve losing all his children in one day or having his friends treat him as if he were a monster.

God causes all things to work for our good, but that doesn’t mean that all things are good, or that they don’t hurt, or that we can shrug them off as if they were nothing. One of the reasons we can say that God causes all things to work for our good is that hard things tend to turn us to God – to cause us to cry to the Lord. That is good for us. We can’t do it on our own. We were never meant to.

I’ve said before, when we are in pain, or when we are afraid, or when we are angry, our worlds narrow down to the feelings and what we perceive to be their causes. We think it doesn’t get more basic than that. But it does. God is with us. The only thing more basic than that is …God.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more