Lovingly Wounded by God

Little did I know the value of pain, disappointments, setbacks, and trouble. Who can ever imagine a loving God allowing all of this in the lives of His dear ones?

I spent most of my life pulling a long face at God, not to mention complaining, when faced with disappointments and pain. What troubled me was the discord between being faithful to God and suffering. 

The hidden pain

Honestly, like most of you, I stepped into the God frame thinking everything is going to turn around for good being around God. As I dug the scripture, that is the first lesson I had to unlearn. The Bible is full of promises of suffering. It doesn't leave you confused about why you need to suffer pain and trouble. I am going to talk you through the things I unlearned and had to relearn to maintain a Godly peace in the wretched world.

CAUGHT IN THE COBWEB

Yeah, we are all caught in the cobweb of this disastrous world. The world dumps its dreams, ambition, success, development, pride, pleasure and status, just to name a few, on us. If these things are going to rule our lives, it'll drown us. We need to understand pain is God's strategy to set us apart and rescue us from the cobweb. 

Does God enjoy seeing us suffer? A quick, no. We read that Jesus shed tears looking at  Lazarus' sisters being hurt even when He knew, in a few moments, He is going to wake Lazarus up. Therefore, we can safely conclude that God feels us through our pain, big or small. 

The divine embrace

The Bible says that God knows our heart better than ourselves(IJohn 3:20) He doesn't lay on us things we cannot cope with(1 Corinthians 10:13)

One day, when I realized everything was going the opposite way in my life, I happened to read Hosea 2:14-21. It spoke to me on a different level and still, it remains as my favorite scripture portion. I quickly jotted it down and until now that moment remains so special to me as I tasted a bit of how God works.

The journal entry

GOD'S STRATEGY

If you read Hosea 2:14-21, you'll understand He is going to allure us, not with miracles, but with pain. He will allure us into the wilderness, which is the narrow path leading to His throne. And, it is in this narrow path that you and I will know the mysterious great I AM. 

     You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me(NIV Psalm 139:5)

This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’(NIV Zech 13:9)

He breaks us and He never despises a broken heart. He is close to a broken heart.  Brokeness is a sign of your closeness with God. It is not when you are strong but when you are weak that God fills you with His power. 

He sees beauty in brokeness

Every pain, trouble, disappointment, a setback is giving us a Godly shape. God is chiseling us out, it ought to be painful but it is to add to our beauty. That is why the Bible says,

 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (NIV -Rom 8:18)

 Every scar is going to beam with God's glory in the end and you'll wish you had more.

Does that mean God is so focused on cornering each one of us and dragging us to heaven? Or should we not expect anything good from God? There is a thin line separating it. 

Every perfect gift comes from above and God is not going to strip us of all goodness and clothe us with suffering. The reason he allows you and I to suffer has a divine purpose that cannot be fully explained by the human mind. We have to just believe. If a paternal father can go to great lengths to save his child, will our heavenly father do us harm?  

THE LESSON

What should we believe in?

We should believe in his sovereignty. 

I worked so hard to listen to an audible voice from God when I was broken in prayer or waited for angels to appear with a message as I cried myself to sleep, it never happened(though it does happen to many people) But, God made sure to comfort me, even if not answer me, in His own way. 

Trust His words

Have you ever thought how easy it would have been when God just showed up and told us the choices we have to make or the path we have to choose? I always go to God for decision-making, we all should. But my expectations were wrong. I wanted God to show me the path the way I wanted it to be understood. God wouldn't. That left me frustrated. I started to complain. The mistake here is my lack of faith in God's words.

What does the Bible say? 

Nothing is hidden from God's sight- So are my tearful prayers

God does good for those who trust in Him- So ultimately He is going to guide my decision even though I didn't feel him, hear him or see him

Whenever I complained, I only made God's words false. Can there be a graver sin than complaining? No wonder the complaining bunch of Israelites did not enter the promised land.

Faith should surface when faced with confusion and pain. And, faith will only lead us through.

Send your burdens above

Complaining is only going to get us into trouble like the 'Israelites. Godliness with contentment is great(1 Tim 6:6-12)To be Godly one should learn to be content; content not because of a state of complete happiness but one has to believe that whatever happens has come from the perfect and all-knowing God who does everything for the good of His children.

 James 1:6-8 If we are going to doubt God's goodness and goodwill for our lives then we will have  a tough time in all situations of our lives.

We all carry burdens. It is left to us, God is ready to carry our burdens. If we are clutching our burdens close to us then God cannot snatch it away from us. We should learn to let go of it.

After God taught my heart about His divine guidance and the need for perfect faith in His words, I have thanked Him for every silence, every delay, pain and disappointment because I know now that God is up to something great in my life. Now I could enjoy the peace that passes all understanding;not after my problems were solved but after I cast it on Jesus.

It is in His silence amidst my cry that I heard Him.