" Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
I love this verse, and it especially rings true when God is blessing me and when I am experiencing wonderful things in the Lord. However, when I am beaten, battered, overwhelmed by trials and loss, does this verse still ring true? Can I truly say, "I thank you Father for this loss, or I rejoice in this sickness?" Can I praise God when someone is taken from me? Would I bless the Lord if I lost my job or my health? It is a sobering thought to think that I would find myself being angry at God or disappointed in Him during hard times rather than truly praising Him in all things.
I try to think of the story of Job in the midst of trials. Read Job 1:13-22. Talk about a bad day. Job had all of his wealth and all of his children taken from him in one day. Imagine experiencing that kind of collapse. Your life's work, your job, all of your time and effort spend to build your wealth up in order to provide for your family and live comfortably was taken at once. No time to save some of it from disappearing. No time to make a decision that would change the outcome. Then on top of that, all of his children are killed in one day. I can't imagine the pain that Job and some of you may have experienced. To lose a child, that you raised and that is so dear to you, that you had imagined them growing old and marrying someone someday and starting a family of their own, was gone in an instance. Job experienced such loss, and his response to it all is, "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground to 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." (Job 1:20-21) I can say that I have never experienced that kind of loss or despair, but if I did I would hope I would be able to react like Job.
However when something bad happens to me, which pales in comparison to Job's loss, my initial reaction is certainly not to worship. I look for someone to blame, I become angry, I despair, I will pray to God for a reason why, I will wonder if I had committed any sin that would have caused this, but rarely does it come to mind for me to worship the Lord.
The problem for me starts with perspective, I look at my trials and the bad things that happen to me as something that I don't deserve. "If there was any justice in the world, these things wouldn't happen to me!" The funny thing is that if I really wanted justice, I would be bound for hell and eternal separation from God because of the sins I have committed. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) We were created to be God's ambassadors of His glory on earth, but we have fallen so short of that calling. God is a holy God and he can not be in the presence of sin, which means us. God created us to be with Him, to commune with Him. Not only did we receive loss when Adam sinned, but the Lord did as well. His desire for us to show His glory and be reconciled to Him was so great, that He sent Christ. God came down to earth in the form of servant (human likeness, Phil 2:6-8) and experienced a broken world for 33 year and ultimately experienced all of our sins (something He had never experienced) when He died for us. "He who knew no sin, became sin for us." (2 Cor 5:21)
God and sin can not ultimately co-exist. Moses, who was sinful, wanted to see God's glory but was told that if he saw God's glory he would die. (Exodus 33:20) God describes Himself to Moses in verse 19 in Exodus 33, "And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." and then look at the verse when God actually passed by, "Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation." (Exodus 34:5-7) God is abounding in love and faithfulness, slow to anger, gracious and compassionate, forgiving sin, and still maintaining and never compromising His holiness.
Seeing what are sin has done to us and who God is it is easy to explain why we have loss. How do we explain the unexplainable loss that happens to us? The death of thousands to an earthquake or some other natural disaster. It all goes back to our sin. We are not proper representations of God and as a result sin entered the world and now we live in a corrupted and fractured creation. Terrible things that can not be explained, such as earthquakes, famines, and destruction takes place because of sin; creation was never intended to experience this, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (Adam, See Genesis 1:28), in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:18-23)
So what should our response be to loss, pain, and suffering, whether it can be explained or not? Rejoice in the Lord in all things! If I received justice, I would die for my sins, so every breath that I take in is truly a gift from a gracious God, that is slow in His righteous anger towards me. I need to stop thinking that the earth revolves around me and my happiness. "The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;" (Psalms 24:1) Look back to Exodus 33:19, He chooses whom to have mercy and compassion on. We are not entitled to anything. So when we think about what we deserve and who God really is, all trials and all hardships fall woefully short from His grace. So be thankful in all things. I pray for the perspective of Job, that in everything, I will worship the Lord!
Psalms 100
Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Here is the song I was listening to while I was writing this:
http://youtu.be/9jYLTn4fKYQ
May the power of God be revealed to us all in His love, mercy, and grace.
Love in Christ,
Daniel
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