We will all go through the wilderness in this life. We will all face affliction, and sometimes correction. We may not know the reasons why we experience this lot in our life. As in the case of the apostle Paul and his thorn in the flesh, he asked for it to be removed, and God did not grant that. Paul gave reason enough, it might not have been detailed, but God’s power would be shown through weakness. No one wants to experience pain, and yet this life is full of it.We can experience pain through the physical, mental, vocational, relational. We cry out to God, WHY?! I can’t imagine what Job felt like. Much pain is from sin but some is not, and yet God in his providence allows it.
C.S. Lewis said in the, “The Problem of Pain”,
”Not all medicine tastes nasty: or if it did, that is itself one of the un-pleasant facts for which we should like to know the reason.”
There have been loads of books on pain and suffering and I am not going to get into the knitty gritty of that in this post maybe another time.
Just because we would like to know the reason, we may not get it on this side of heaven, but we do know that God is good and “all things are being worked together for the good to those that are called according to his purpose.” We also know that the power of Christ is made seen through weakness. God is gracious through it all.
So what do we do with our afflictions, our pain, our weakness, our correction sometimes?
What does Psalmist do? Here is Psalm 63 I have made bold the actions the Pslamist is taking.
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.
2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.
Seek Him. Praise Him. Remember Him. I think the “remember” part is really important. We need to remember that the Lord is good, remember his promises, and he makes earnest on them, remember the times the Lord has delivered us in the past, remember all the ways God is good and gracious to us. One sure way we train our minds to remember is reading his word and meditating. This is a must. Think on it.
Whatever your lot is, it is surely well with your soul because God is good and he has his hand on you. He has his hand on me. My afflictions do not define me and yours don’t define you. He is being lifted up through it all and this is reason to praise him.
Seek and Remember Him!
stones from the quarry 
This is great! I just read this and I realized it’s really similar to what I’ve been going through. Even what I just wrote on. I guess God has us on similar paths right now with the work he is doing in us.
We can super deep on this one. I love that CS Lewis quote you gave. It’s the whole process perspective on his daily redemption of us. He’s redeeming us in all things to glorify us for the life he is preparing to give us. I really liked how you brought Psalm 63 into it too! This is my favorite Psalm too! It’s just lovely.
You should totally do a deep dive on pain and God’s will in everything we experience that is uncomfortable sometime! This was an awesome post as usual! Loved reading it!!
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Thank you. You are right, I think God is speaking to us in similar ways. It’s awesome how God uses the family to be of encouragement with one another. Yeah I kinc of am going into deep water with that pain and the will of God. I started reading a Puritan book called “the crook in the lot.” It’s by Thomas a. Boston. Any of the puritan writings are deep. It’s a slow reader. Small book but packs a punch!
I’m reminding myself that my idenity is not wrapped up in what others think. Oh yes God is working on me.
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Oooh, i need to check that out. I love old school puritan reads haha! Yes it is really great how he uses family to encourage each other. I was talking with my wife just the other day about why God doesn’t just heal people sometimes and I brought up James 5:14…God desires others to be involved in the interventions he has for us, it’s a community goal. He can do anything at any time with any one, but I think his heart loves it when he gets to work through others to change people or speak to people. Just like in James.
He’s working on me too!!
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Yes, I have thougt of that verse too. My dad anointed with oil my childhood piano teacher and sister in Christ–she had ovarian cancer. She recently went home.
She was healed….it might not have been on this side but it was even better! The providence and sovereignty of God is not something we can put into a nicely wrapped box. I know one thing his ways are better. We have to trust.
Yes those puritains sure knew how to meditate on the word–something going by the wayside in today’s culture it seems. I could do better. 😉
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Powerful story. And you’re very right, his providence is not some thing we can wrap up as a present. They did, didn’t they! That’s actually what we talked about in small group tonight…closeness with God during the dau, especially in the mundane parts and task driven times when it’s difficult to remember him. I could do better too! 😉 but at least we are pursuing him deeper, we can’t settle for less of him, especially since we’ve tasted his goodness already!
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Thank you Jo…Love the words you share…Keep up the good work…Dave
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Thank you Uncle Dave for you encouragenent and support. Love you.
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