Because We Are His

From Living by God’s Promises by Joel R. Beeke and James A. La Belle:

The Lord … promises to use our afflictions for our eternal good. This is because we undergo trials not as enemies of God, but as children of God through our saving relationship with Christ. To those without Christ, trials are but foretastes of the coming judgment, but to we who are in Christ, trials are mediated by God’s eternal grace and love. The Lord has promised our correction and spiritual benefit through our afflictions. Keeping this in mind will help us face our troubles with the view of how we can profit from them rather than how long we have to suffer.

Because we, like sheep, tend to stray from the path of following God, one of the primary purposes of affliction is to restore us to the path or hedge in the path so that we do not leave it. Hebrews 12:6 says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” That by itself is a comfort because, as the passage goes on to say, “But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.” (v. 8) … So we have comfort in affliction that our Father is reproving us because He loves us and is correcting us because we are His. Even more, His correction is done in great wisdom and with much tenderness.

Sure Things Only Because

There was a time in my life when everything was building. Gaining, we were—more children, bigger home, further education, better life. There was hope—maybe not for big things—but for good things.

But before we ever got there, the tide turned. The gaining stopped and the losing began: illness and death and children who wander. And with the losses came a good look inside my own heart, because there’s nothing like having beloved people and dreams taken away to show the idolatry in one’s desires.

This is the way our world is—illness, death, sin and dark hearts. The whole thing, you know, is cursed. I’ve always known it, but now I know it: I feel it in my chest every morning. 

It was here, into this world—my world, your world, the world that steals dreams and makes hearts ache, the cursed one—that the Eternal Son was born and grew and lived. When did he come to understand that so many innocent boys his own age had been slaughtered? Slaughtered because of him? How old was he when he lost his earthly father? How did he feel when his own brothers disbelieved him? When his friend betrayed him? When his own people did not receive him? Did all the dark hearts around him make his heart ache?

One thing is sure: He knew the darkness of our world through his own experience in a way I never will. I experience the darkness in my own life, but he experienced it all. He took our sins upon himself. He carried the cursedness of this world. He came here to us, lived here with us, and suffered for us.

And that gives hope—better hope, the kind of hope that’s a sure thing. Certain hope for big things and good things: healing and life and clean hearts. Hope for a new world.

But only because God sent and he came. Only because he came here, where I am, where you are. Only because God gave and he gave up.

Suffering Opens Up the Knowledge of God

My old blogging friend David Wayne (aka The JollyBlogger) on his experience with cancer and the good that’s come from his suffering:

David Wayne - My Battle with Cancer from David Wayne on Vimeo.

I found out that I had a tumor on my colon on December 19, 2008. On December 22, 2008 I found out that the cancer had spread to my liver and lungs and would later find out it was also in my lymph nodes. I had surgery on Christmas Eve 2008 to remove the tumor on my colon, then began chemotherapy on January 27, 2009. This is the story of my battle from those first few days through early May of 2009.

I watched and nodded yes, yes, yes through it all. This is how it is for those who love God.