Can you believe this? It was written by Larry Crabb and appears in his new book, Broken Dreams.
"There's never a moment in all our lives, from the day we first trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us. At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good. He never stops. It gives Him too much pleasure. God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end. He is blessing us right now, in and through these troubles. At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good."
Ah, there's the rub. It is what He thinks is good.
I invite you to join with me as I explore this new book by Brother Crabb. I invite you to see God at work in the troubles of your life, in the Broken Dreams of your Christian walk. I am sure that your spiritual perspective on blessing will be challenged, your priorities for life will be altered, your definition of "good" will be corrected and enlarged.
For now think of this. Christians have said for a long time that God answers prayer in one of three ways: yes, no, wait. But I have found that God answers in one of four ways: yes, no, wait, HERE IS SOMETHING BETTER.
Are you walking through a dark valley reminiscent of Psalm 23? Just remember, the psalmist said he "walked THROUGH" that valley. Keep watching as over the next several weeks we explore God's work in our Broken Dreams.
I was challenged once to see if I had enough friends I could call upon to carry me to my grave. In his book, Broken Dreams, Larry Crabb made a list of his best friends. His list numbered six. As he contemplated the list he found that they were his good friends because they help, or had helped, to meet some need in his life. Not that he didn’t reciprocate, these folks meant a great deal to him because they ministered to him in some way.
We’ve been taught to sing, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and to cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus. After all, we are told "...he who trusts in the LORD will prosper" (Prov. 28:29) and, "‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’"(Jer 29:11). These are certainly the promises of a Friend who can meet our needs. But what do we do when these words seem to have been said in vain?
We pray for healing, job security, repair of a broken marriage, return of a child gone astray, deliverance from a dominating sin, a Christian mate. What do we do when there is no healing but a constant progression of the disease, lose the job, marriage goes from bad to worse, the wayward child strays even further, continually fall to the same hated sin, remain single with no prospect of marriage? Crabb wrote, "It’s hard to develop a personal relationship with an invisible God...It’s even harder to feel close to an unresponsive God."
I believe the bottom line is that we do not understand the words "bless" and "prosper" in their Biblical sense. We picture then as the Good Shepherd carrying the lost, wounded and frightened lamb, stroking it and giving it peace, comfort, health, joy and wealth.
But in Scripture it is these words refer to the working of God in ours lives to achieve HIS purpose in conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe me, and I would rather have you believe Scripture than me, read 1 Peter 1:6-7, and Romans 8:28-29.
God is blessing and prospering you by shattering your dream in order to begin to work His dream for your life.
We need the faith of Job who said, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him..." (Job 13:15). Then we will "celebrate (God’s) abundant goodness and joyfully sing of God’s righteousness." We will say, "The LORD is gracious and compassionate..." (Ps. 145:7-8).
I like, no, I love roller coasters. My only complain with the roller coasters of today is that they are about 30 years too late for me to ride them. If I rode one today they would remove me in parts. The reason I mention this is that life is sometimes like a roller coaster ride, isn't it. And it would not be so bad if it were for the thrill factor. But the roller coaster ride of life I am thinking about is the one that causes highs and lows of emotion, pain, distress, worry, care, etc.
So far we I have said that God answers prayer in one of four ways, "Yes", "No", "Wait", and "Here is something better". In my last Weekly Thot I wrote that we do not invest the words "bless" and "prosper" with the proper Biblical meaning.
Now I want to add that I believe we suffer in this world for four reasons. We suffer because we live in a fallen, imperfect world, we also suffer because of our own sinfulness, and we also suffer because of the sinful actions of others. And last, but not least, we suffer because God has determined that this is the way needed to bring about His dream for us.
As you look at that list I'm sure you would agree with all of them. But the one that can really get us to question the goodness and fairness of God is when we suffer because of the sinful actions of others. We didn't do it, yet we suffer because of it. We tell God, "It Isn't fair! I didn't do anything! I don't deserve this!" When we find ourselves saying this we need to remember the last reason above. That is, "we suffer because has determined that, that is the way needed to bring about His dream for us."
God is sovereign. Nothing takes place in your life outside of His will, except our sin. But God can "make all things work together for good to them..." even the horrible effects of other's sins. Don't believe me? Read again the story of Joseph starting in Genesis 37. Joseph's conclusion was that his brothers' sinful acts were meant to work harm, and they did, but God took them and used them to work His dream in Joseph's life.
It's testimony time in the local church and you almost know what to expect. Someone was sick, they prayed, and got better. Another was in danger of losing, or did lose, a job and God provided them with another. Another had financial problems and money was supplied. These are all great testimonies and give God praise for the way He met the various needs.
The Old Testament saints also had a testimony meeting. The Holy Spirit tells their testimony in Hebrews 11. Larry Crabb comments on this text by writing, "One gets the impression from reading Hebrews 11 that God would prefer to hear someone share, `My cancer came back, I just lost my job, and my wife filled for divorce; I feel angry, discouraged, and miserable. But I intend to keep trusting in God. I believe I can do it. I want him more than ever. That's my hope. And it brings me deep joy.'" Sort of sounds like Job when he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him..." (Job 13:15)
Isn't it amazing that in God's FAITH HALL OF FAME there are those who had great answers to prayer and also those who must have felt abandoned. There are those whose prayers were answered, and those whose prayers were answered hereafter.
Again we step back in surprise and say, "Doesn't God want me to be happy? What about the spiritual gift of `Joy'? Is there any hope for relief?" My space and time is limited in this Weekly Thot so I will just lay down some thoughts for you to consider and to which I plan to return.
1. One is, we want heaven now and hereafter. Even Jesus didn't have that.
2. Also, our greatest joy is found in drawing close to our Heavenly Father. As one person wrote, "We ask for answers, God offers Himself."
3. And think on this, Jesus wept and shed drops of blood in a garden called Gethsemane. Here was the sight of a great trial and troubling of His soul. It was from this same garden He ascended and to this same garden He will return. Before the crown there came the cross, before the glory there was the gore, before the perfection of God's will for Jesus there was the crucifixion.
It's not fair!" we cry in the face of suffering, anguish, disease and death. It's not fair that I have to suffer while some low life lives a happy life ever after. It's not fair that some committed Believer who loves & follows the Lord faithfully is crippled, maimed, financially troubled, dies some horrible death by accident or disease while some drunk or druggie emerges unscathed. It's not fair that a loving, gentle Believer must experience pain, poverty, loneliness while some aggressively arrogant sinner gets all the honors, breaks, and wealth. Yes, "It's not fair!"
Life's seeming unfairness has caused many a Believer to struggle with God. It may be of some comfort to note that some of the greatest saints in Scripture had their struggles with God over this issue of life's fairness or unfairness. These were men like Job, Jeremiah, Asaph, Habakkuk, David. They too asked God, "Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?" "Is it really worth it to be a follower of God, a Believer?"
In Scripture we can spot several reasons why God allows us to suffer. One of them is truly awesome. It is so that satan will be silenced! Satan is silenced when he is allowed to try the saints and they show the truth that God's grace is sufficient. The best example of this is the Old Testament character Job. Satan accused Job of serving God only for his own personal gain (Job 1:9_11). So God gave Satan the privilege of taking away Job's possessions and family. The end result of this was that Satan was silenced for instead of complaining against God Scripture records the following:
"At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised." In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (Job 1:20_2:1)
It is not unusual for Satan to sow the seeds of doubt, distrust, and rebellion by persuading us that we can only serve God in the sunshine. But he's been silenced in many a sickroom and poverty stricken home where trial and testing have brought forth only praise to God. Isn't it an awesome thought that God may be allowing us to go through difficult times in order to shut satan's mouth?
"But, that wasn't a very pleasant experience for righteous Job." No, but read the story! God made this experience work for the good of Job while at the same time refuting satan. Because of his trial Job was pressed to consider his relationship with God in a whole different way. He was forced to face some issues he must have been dealing with in his own mind. The calloused remarks of his "comforters" made Job fine tune his understanding of God. And at the end of the book Job is better than he was at the beginning.
Read the book!
The next time you go through a trying situation just think that perhaps, in the background, God is giving you both an opportunity to grow, as well as an opportunity to prove to satan that God's grace is sufficient, and that you love for the Savior is far deeper than he ever expected.
As we continue on our quest for the meaning behind our Broken Dreams, I trust you do not think I am saying that the Believer’s life is all doom and gloom. That is not the case at all. What I am trying to show is that God’s definition of "blessing" is not necessarily ours, and for our definition of "blessing" to be correct and understandable we need to have God’s definition. And for God, shattered our most precious and tightly held dream may be the greatest blessing we ever receive. God doesn’t shatter our dreams to be sadistical, but to be beneficial.
Last week we saw that God’s purpose may be to silence satan, the great accuser of the brethren. We saw that most pointedly in the story and Book of Job. And while Job was silencing satan in the way he bore up under his trials, God was also perfecting his spiritual perceptions and Job was the better for the experience at the end.
But there are other reasons why God may cause us to walk through deep waters and dark valleys. And another of them is to develop sympathy. Often the greatest sufferers are those who become the greatest sympathizers. Having been in the place where we have needed sympathy ourselves we become more sympathetic toward others. Job’s friends knew nothing of his sufferings so Job called them "miserable comforters." The Apostle Paul wrote about this facet of suffering when he wrote in 2 Cor 1:3_4, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
The greatest comforter of all time was the Lord Jesus Christ. When he fasted for forty days he endured intense trial. And at the end of that time he had silenced Satan. During that time he knew what it meant to be hungry, to spend sleepless nights frightening the enemy. Yet the penman of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 2:18, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."
I know that because of this things I have faced in my own life, not just recently but all through my life, I have a greater sympathy for those who are suffering as I have.
A man sat at the front of the church one afternoon to attend the funeral of his young son. The pastor, trying to consol the man, sat next to him and putting his arm around the man’s shoulders said, "I know how you feel." To that the man answered, "No you don’t. You never lost your son." He was right, it would take another who lost his young son to be able to say in truth to this man, "I know how you feel."
So, sometimes when we go through trials, when dreams are shattered, it is God’s work in use preparing us for further work in His kingdom.
Why does a loving God, a prayer hearing God, a God who is powerful enough to answer our every prayer, allow us to go through suffering? Can He really be seen as loving and allow a child to contract cancer, a devoted husband to lose his life in an accident, a struggling single mom to lose her job, especially when these are all His own?
Yes, He can be seen as loving for as we have seen already our definition of blessing is not necessarily His. He allows us to go through suffering so that His perfect plan for us may be realized. He allows us to go through deep valleys so that satan will be silenced, so that we develop sympathy, and also so that we grow in purity.
Paul wrote in Rom 8:28-29 "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. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
And Peter added in his first epistle 1:6-8 "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
God puts His child through the heat of suffering in order to bring to the top the impurities in his/her life just as the goldsmith heated gold to the melting point so that the impurities in the ore would rise to the top to be skimmed off. Through this process the sin and other weights to our spiritual maturity are gradually skimmed out of our lives. Our faith is purified from the slag of unbelief and wordiness. The result is the same the goldsmith anticipated, that is, that once the impurities were removed the molten gold would reflect the goldsmith’s face. Even so our God wants to be able to look into our lives and see His face reflected without distortion.
God’s ultimate purpose for us is found in Rom 8:29 "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."
The likeness of Christ in our lives is God’s goal. And God often uses suffering as His tool to bring us to deal with the impurities in our lives. That is why Peter wrote "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
This is also seen in Job’s statement in "But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." (Job 23:13)
As we will eventually see, the ultimate purpose of God in shattering our most cherished dreams is to drive us to Himself, to make us realize that the deepest longing of the human soul is to know God, and to do that intimately. But along the way to that realization we need to see another of the stepping stones, reasons if you will, of God’s working through our sorrow and grief. And that is that God delights to display Himself in grace.
Someone said, "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity." That is, in the midst of our trials and tribulations God has the opportunity to show forth His all sufficient grace as at no other time. Illustrations of this can be found in the three Hebrews thrown into the fiery furnace in Daniel, Stephen being stoned in Acts and John exiled to the Island of Patmos.
It is in these times that God delights to manifest His grace and bring glory to Himself. Just consider the following:
Psalm 23:4 "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
God cannot be any nearer to you than He is right now. But when we go through the fires of adversity He seems to be closer. It is just that His presence, which we so often take for granted, is realized in a far greater way. Have you allowed God to display His amazing, abundant grace to you as your dreams are shattered?
Someone said, "When God is going to do something wonderful, He’ll often begin with a difficulty." Consider the following:
James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
1 Thessalonians 1:6 "You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit."
Acts 5:40_41 "His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name."
Another thing God does in and through our Broken Dreams is to actually increase our joy. There are times when what we think will bring us joy, won’t, and God must wake us up to that fact. And so very often the thing we think will really bring us the most joy is something that is held very close to our hearts. To remove these things can be as difficult and painful as physical surgery. In fact, you can liken it to soul surgery. And as it is with physical surgery, the pain is necessary is the cutting goes deep, and so the spiritual pain is also deep as the Master Physician’s scalpel carves out that which is really hindering our fullest experience of joy.
What is God doing in your life?
Has He shattered your dreams as He did Job’s so that you may be His instrument to silence satan? Or is He preparing you for greater ministry by developing sympathy? Perhaps He is seeking to promote personal purity in your soul, or has chosen this way to display His amazing grace. Or it is an effort to show you where real, soul fulfilling joy can be found.
What ever it is, be patient in suffering.
Psalm 40:4 "Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods."
James 5:7 "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.
Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
I went to see my doctor yesterday, not because I am sick, but because I suffer from chronic pain. Some years ago I had to have my neck operated on 3 times in 2 years, the 2nd and 3rd operations being one month apart. While the initial pain of the ruptured disk is gone, I am now left with physical pain of a different type. I went to visit my doctor so I could have my pain medication renewed. You see, I am a North American, I have the latest of medical advances at my finger tips, and I do not feel that I need, nor have to, experience pain. If I have a headache, a cold, a fracture, or surgery there is a pill I can take which should relieve the symptoms of my pain. I am entitled to live pain free, it is the American way. Pain is an enemy!
But pain is not an enemy. Rather, it is God’s built-in alarm system to let us know all is not right. Those who do not experience pain suffer what has been called "Hansen's disease." Or as we know it, "Leprosy." They do not receive messages of pain from injured areas which then become infected and eventually need to be amputated. Yes, pain is a friend. But our society seems it only an in convince to the "Good Life," certainly something God would not want us to suffer.
And we transfer those feelings to our spiritual lives. Certainly the God who is the Great Physician will have a "pill" for every pain. The earmark must be the "Good life" of financial, material, physical, social and family happiness and blessing. So why then does God allow us to hurt spiritually? Why doesn’t He just pop the magic pill and take away all my inner hurts and fulfill all my special dreams?
We have seen a whole list of reasons why God allows such pain to come into our lives. But the number one reason, the one above all others, is that God wants us to feel the need we have for Him. We substitute so may things for an intimate walk with our God, even good things. We have high and noble, often holy dreams for our lives and feel that the accomplishment of them will cause us to be successful. But so many times these are mere substitutes for what God really wants from us. As I wrote in an earlier Weekly Thot, we so often ask God for answers and God in reply offers Himself. Our dreams often get in the way of what God wants for us. Someone said that when all else was taken away they found that God was enough.
I was made the remember of verse, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). When our hearts are set on things other than God, He must break through and get our attention. And our dreams are the things we hold closest to our hearts, and when He shatters them to get us to focus on Him we experience pain.
Has God shattered a dram of yours? Have you allowed Him to draw you closer to Him? Has the experience hardened you, or softened you? Have you viewed God’s distance as a disappointment or am invitation to draw closer yourself to Him?
Remember, this kind of pain is good pain. It removes that which hinders us from searching for Him with all our heart.
