What bothered me most was not knowing my true motivation for not wanting to watch this video. I took my husband’s advise, and with notebook in hand I prayed about it. Here is a glimpse of what came of that,
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Two years ago we had been blessed by excellent health. Through the knowledge of giving our bodies what they need, we can, in a very small way, control our health. However, ultimately, God has complete control. He created every cell in each of our bodies, and He is the one who decides the function and purpose of each of those cells. He has given us means to help our ailments, whether by supplements, changes in diet, or knowledgeable physicians, but again, ultimately there is only one Great Physician.
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Christians can make the strangest claims when comforting those who are suffering. What do you say to someone whose life is falling apart? If you have but few precious minutes with a person who’s lost a job, home, spouse, child, or all sense of purpose, what comfort do you give?
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As I look back on that time, I think it was Lesson One for me in the school of faith. That is, it was my first experience of having to bow down before that which I could not possibly explain. . . . Faith’s most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain. If God were God, if He were omnipotent, if He had cared, would this have happened? Is this that I face now the ratification of my calling, the reward of obedience? . . . I had desired God Himself and He had not only not given me what I asked for, He had snatched away what I had.
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Use me, Lord, please use me
I know I’m frail O but I am here, Lord
Use me, Lord, please use me
For Your Kingdom and Your Glory
I am weak but You are holy
Countless childhood surgeries. Yearlong stints in the hospital. Verbal and physical bullying from classmates. Multiple miscarriages as a young wife. The unexpected death of a child. A debilitating progressive disease. Riveting pain. Betrayal. A husband who leaves.
If it were up to me, I would have written my story differently. Not one of those phrases would be included. Each line represents something hard. Gut wrenching. Life changing.
But now, in retrospect, I wouldn’t erase a single line.
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When we complain, it is frequently evil. But complaining is not necessarily evil. There’s a faithful (believing) way to complain and a faithless (unbelieving) way to complain.
The Bible often refers to faithless complaining as grumbling and warns us not to do that (Numbers 14:26–30; John 6:43; Philippians 2:14; James 5:9). Grumbling complaints directly or indirectly declare that God is not sufficiently good, faithful, loving, wise, powerful, or competent. Otherwise, he would treat us better or run the universe more effectively. Faithless complaining is sinful because it accuses God of doing wrong.
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Every day we are faced with choices: surrender to self-pity, or press on in spite of disappointment and failure.
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He starts with a quiet heart, but he begins to ask God and his friends and himself and anyone who will listen all these questions that come flooding into his mind. It really all comes down to the question of why. Why me? Why this? Why now? Why? What happens as the book progresses is that Job begins to try and understand things that are not fathomable. And because he can’t understand, rather than being content with mystery . . .
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You see, from an outside perspective, Elisabeth Elliot had so many reasons to give up, to curl up and to turn inward over the years. Her first love was martyred, her second was lost to cancer, and her third and final nursed her as her memory left, not to mention all the trials and struggles that come just from the living of life in a broken world. Time and again, she looked into the darkest and most difficult and she saw God and found Him to be faithful … and then she wrote it down so that we wouldn’t lose hope when it was our own turn in the dark places.
Read MoreBut God did not give us a trouble-free day. Instead he let us come into trouble (which, of course, he could have kept from happening) and then helped us in some amazing ways in the midst of our fear and frustration and sweat and disappointment. So here, as in a thousand other times of my life, I was thanking the Lord for his grace, not to keep me from trouble and sickness and frustration and disappointment, but to give me amazing help in the midst of it.
Read MoreIf, believer, you require still greater comfort, remember that you have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. In that silent chamber of yours, there sits by your side One whom you have not seen, but whom you love; and often when you do not know it, He comforts you in your affliction and softens the place of rest. You are in poverty; but in your lovely house the Lord of life and glory is a frequent visitor. He loves to come into these desolate places, that He may visit you. Your friend sticks closely to you. You cannot see Him, but you may feel the pressure of His hands. Do you not hear His voice? Even in the valley of the shadow of death He says, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.”
Read MoreTV may not be a problem for you. There may be some other issue where God is calling you to surrender. But I’ll tell you that when I finally said, “Yes, Lord,” and made the changes I knew I needed to make, it led to incredible new freedom and fruitfulness in my life. I don’t know what you may be struggling with, but whatever it is, let me just encourage you: Don’t delay obedience.
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If “enter into the joy of your master” is the heartbeat behind every one of God’s commands, and if we actually believe that, do you think it will change the way we obey in this life? Maybe it will mean that our adolescent push back will begin to pass away more and more, until the day when it passes away into eternal oblivion, never to be seen again.
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Devotional material from Morning and Evening, written by C.H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2003, Good News Publishers and used by Truth For Life with written permission. (Originally posted on Truth for Life, May 2, 2015.)
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Surrender. Being yoked to Jesus in such a way that he is carrying the weight of my burden—giving me rest for my soul, peace in the midst of the trauma of decision-making, release of harmful stress.
This is what I want. This is what I’m seeking. However, I know I’m incapable of surrendering on my own in this way. This kind of surrender is only possible through his power and enabling grace—the power of his indwelling Holy Spirit—the reality of his resurrection power in my life.
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