Month: November 2015

In moments when my sin wants to get the upper hand, to assign to me deserved condemnation, I have an Advocate, a Way out of that; something much more powerful than even my sin!

The fact that I am guilty is clear. The greater fact that upon confession I am free from that guilt takes faith in the reality of what Jesus did. I can live under the shadow of guilt or take the gift of forgiveness that leads to freedom and change. Sometimes I can stare at forgiveness or freedom like a beautiful, expensive gift, unopened and unappreciated.

Psalm 40 has intrigued me.  After a verse like

Ps 40:5 – “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you.”

and

Ps. 40:11- “O Lord you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and faithfulness will ever preserve me.”   

Then he says,

Ps. 40:12 – “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me…my heart fails me.”  40:13 – “Be pleased to deliver me…”  

This shows quite a contrast, from high praise to near despair, crying to him for help.  So we’re in good company when we feel amazed at God as we look back on his goodness, but then get overwhelmed as we see our shortfalls and the obstacles before us as we look forward.

When things in our lives want to overtake us, there are ways out.  “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man…”  1 Cor 10:13

Here are some valuable words on dealing with sufferings of life when you feel overtaken from Michael Hyatt’s podcast by Michelle Cushatt 11-2015:

Lessons from suffering:

1. The unexpected is unavoidable. It’s just unavoidable. That sounds like bad news, but when we incorporate that into our daily lives, into our stories, we realize it’s totally unavoidable, so we shouldn’t be surprised by it. Don’t let yourself be completely derailed by the phone call you didn’t expect, the promotion that didn’t work out, the child who’s struggling, or whatever it may be. The unexpected is unavoidable for all of us. We’re in good company.
2. The second lesson is that the suffering is invaluable. I tell people, that’s not a good party conversation. Nobody wants to talk about suffering, but it is invaluable. In the midst of suffering, you can be mad at it, you can be angry at it, but if there is a way to lean into it, the rewards on the other side are just incredible. So somehow we have to figure out how to not resent it and resist it. It’s going to come. We can’t do a lot about it, so if we can somehow not resent it or resist it and instead lean into it, the suffering becomes a great teacher.
3. The third takeaway would be that the reward is incomparable. We know we run those 26.2 miles of the marathon because of how it feels when it’s done, to know we accomplished it, and that’s just a race. Imagine how much more rewarding this life is when we choose to run it well to the very end. So the unexpected is unavoidable and the suffering is invaluable, but the reward is incomparable.

“. . . often God leads us through the land we most want to avoid in order to produce the fruit we most desperately desire.” The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions by Jeff Manion p. 191

What unopened gifts are you staring at?