The grace and power of Jesus makes affliction livable.
Category Archives: Endurance
Do not strive in your own strength; cast yourself at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and wait upon Him in the sure confidence that He is with you, and works in you. Strive in prayer; let faith fill your heart-so will you be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
The Hope of Christmas
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Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12
Have you ever felt hopeless? As the passage above says, hopelessness makes the heart sick and the world becomes a very dark place. When I first became ill, that was very true in my life. The pain I was enduring was relentless and creating a sense of fear and dread in our family. The anxiety and uncertainty that it produced were intolerable. If that wasn’t enough, I couldn’t reconcile God’s love with my illness. I certainly didn’t see how any part of it could be working to my good, or to God’s glory. Further, the Christians in my life at the time focused on my physical wellbeing, but never asked about my soul and did not attempt to present God’s spiritual truths that might apply. As a result, I greatly desired my death. Honestly, I desired it more for my wife and children than for myself. As much as I wanted the pain and frustration to stop, I was most concerned about the damage that my illness and my inability to handle it were doing to them. Daily I begged God to end my life. In short, I was hopeless and my hopelessness was creating an adverse atmosphere in our home. Thankfully it did not end there. Eventually I learned to manage my illness somewhat, we became part of a church body that sought God’s will in all things and surrounded us with those who encouraged us in our faith, and the passage of time gave me the confidence that I could make peace with my circumstances. However, the greatest change came when the word of God and the impact of Christians seeking to encourage me on a spiritual level invaded my illness and helped me to see that God had purpose in my pain and that it truly would work for my good and, more importantly, for the glory of God. While I still struggle with the frustrations that come with living in a fallen world, it is the contrast between those dark days and the change that came with truth of scripture and the promises of God that keeps me going, points me to God and gives me hope. One of the things that we celebrate as a part of the Christmas season is the hope that we have…hope in our God, hope in the salvation the Christ provides, and the hope of eternity.
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Thanksgiving Part 3
Thankful for Our Circumstances
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Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Most people are fairly comfortable being thankful for God’s provisions and for the people in their lives. While we may not feel that our circumstances are quite as perfect as those depicted in Norm Rockwell’s “Freedom from Want”, we can generally muster a fairly strong attitude of thankfulness. Certainly when we feel that things are going relatively well, we are filled with thankfulness, but what about when the times are tough. Thanksgiving of 1992 I woke up in the hospital after having an ERCP the previous day. I was in pain and groggy; I barely remember celebrating the holiday, let alone being thankful.
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Thanksgiving Part 2
People
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Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
The call to live and to die well especially in the face of adversity, i.e. according to God’s will, has at least three purposes: it strengthens our relationship with our Lord, it provides us a better quality of life and it strengthens the body of Christ. With respect to the latter, sometimes we learn from studying scripture and sometimes we learn from and are encouraged by watching others as they live by faith. For this post, rather than presenting a discussion of the precepts that encourage healthy relationships for which we can be thankful, I’d like to present evidence of God working through the body of Christ.
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We must depend upon God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. We must, to the same degree, depend on Him to enable us to do what we must do for ourselves.
Rest, Respite and Repose
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By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:2-4
It is clear in scripture that we are to live our lives to the fullest in service to our Lord and fellow man. It is how we fulfill our responsibilities as good ambassadors, stewards and children of God. We are called to run with endurance as one striving to win the prize. Yet God also understands how He designed us and that part of living well is rest, respite and repose. In one sense these are all synonyms as reflected by the definitions of rest that I have found. However, they each carry a slightly different connotation.
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Questions, doubts, and struggles are not the antithesis of faith. The opposite of faith is a decision to not trust God. The man who cried out to Jesus, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief’ did not demonstrate faith with zero doubts but a willful decision to trust in God even in the midst of questions and doubts.
Carpe Diem
Seizing the day
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Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15-16
Today has been a rough day. My symptoms have been flaring and I have found it difficult to keep moving and be productive. Fatigue and lack of focus are making it rough to think and to write let alone maintain a healthy attitude. That’s often the case for those of us struggling with illness. Whether it’s dealing with our infirmities in general or the various symptoms that present themselves, days are regularly difficult and require much effort to endure. Many trials offer similar effects. It may be grief, caring for a dying loved one, attempting to redirect a rebellious child or any of the other life traumas that completely overwhelm us, but whatever “it” is, we are easily shut down and find it difficult to manage the affairs of the day let alone be industrious or thrive.
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With what little time we have left for making life meaningful, too many of us find ourselves going through the motions and achieving very little of lasting value. We live as if we have all the time in the world, when the truth of the matter is that our time on earth is short. We truly are ‘here today, gone tomorrow,’ making every second precious.