RE: [Mark's Blog] New comment on Affairs Brought About by God.
Tonight I received a response to the Affairs Brought About by God from the blog. The writer quotes from the blog,
"Understanding that God is working out His sovereign plan behind the scenes of our lives is foundational to a life of peace."
Then says:
This understanding is o'h so difficult, please pray for this peace because I feel so weak, so sad, so alone. I know; immerse myself in the truth, God's love is all around me, his spirit within.
Response:
We can’t forget that we are in a spiritual battle that surrounds us. Satan will not sleep until he does everything in his power to blind us from the glory and miraculous power that God has within the reach of anyone who desires to experience the abundant life. Second Peter 1 goes over this in depth…please read this. What we are often so blind to the truth that our intense suffering is the method chosen by God to change us. To be changed into Christ’s likeness is never a process that occurs without pain. The early Christians were persecuted and tortured. This was God’s method of maturing them and preparing them for the new kingdom. Today, for many, God has chosen the method of loneliness and broken relationships. The question is, how much do you want to be like Him? How much of your life are you willing to lay down? He gave everything! Held nothing back…will it be easy? Oh if you only knew…every one that I know who is genuine about their relationship with Christ, endures their private pain…no one knows the depth…the pain and intensity is more than most will ever imagine. But this is the preparation that God has chosen to make us a fit vessel for the Master’s use. And we can’t do it alone…for me, I need the Word…Christian radio ministers to me…serving the Lord in ministry keeps me accountable and moving forward. Because the wonders and reward of serving the king outweighs the pain you suffer, you are propelled forward; willing to endure. Just as an Olympic athlete has to prepare for years, painstaking preparation, so too are we called by the One who redeemed us and now desires to sanctify us—the training is never easy—but when you get to participate in the games, or in the battle, the suffering becomes a fading memory and at that time, you understand…it was worth it. So few experience this today…will you? You are not alone.
posted by The Lamplighter | 10:55 PM
3 Comments:
A beautiful statment I read recently...
"I am at an impasse, and you, O God, have brought me here....From my earliest days, I believed in you. I shared in the life of your people; in their prayers, in their work, in their songs....For me your yoke was easy. On me your presence smiled....Noon has darkened....And where are you in this darkness?...or is it not your absence in which I dwell but your elusive troubling presence..?
Dear Sovereign Lord, Our God, worthy of all gratitude, praise, reverence and worship; please transform my body and heart to become a living sacrifice acceptable to you, glorifying you through a continuous quest of understanding and appreciating your never ending love, grace and mercy given to us through Jesus Christ. Amen
One of my favorites from Ransomed Heart: Hemmed In
Why did God curse Eve with loneliness and heartache, an emptiness that nothing would be able to fill? Wasn’t her life going to be hard enough out there in the world, banished from the Garden that was her true home, her only home, never able to return? It seems unkind. Cruel, even.
He did it to save her. For as we all know personally, something in Eve’s heart shifted at the fall. Something sent its roots down deep into her soul – and ours – that mistrust of God’s heart, that resolution to find life on our own terms. So God has to thwart her. In love, he has to block her attempts until, wounded and aching; she turns to him and him alone for her rescue.
Therefore I will block her path with thorn bushes;
I will wall her in so she cannot find her way.
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Hosea 2:6-7
Jesus has to thwart us too – thwart our self-redemptive plans, our controlling and our hiding, thwart the ways we are seeking to fill the ache within us. Otherwise, we would never fully turn to him for our rescue. Oh, we might turn to him for our “salvation,” for a ticket to heaven when we die. We might turn to him even in the form of Christian service, regular church attendance, a moral life. But inside, our heart remains broken and captive and far from the One who can help us.
And so you will see the gentle, firm hand of God in a woman’s life hemming her in. Wherever it is we have sought life apart from him, he disrupts our plans, our “way of life” which is not life at all.
(Captivating (, 96-97)
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