Encouragement

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A Greater Mercy

Recently my sister in law lost a baby after five months of pregnancy. Having loved and known this child she had to giber birth to her knowing full well that the child was dead. This painful experience was compounded by various other serious personal problems that preceded the stillbirth. After having bravely stood her ground in the midst of these other problems, losing this child seemed like a slap in the face.

Tragedies such as this cause us to search God and sometimes to question His love and mercy. My sister in law and I were pregnant at the same time and so the loss of her child set me into a deep pondering of God and His ways.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5)
The Lord makes it clear that His ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are not our thoughts, so as the heavens are higher than the earth so are His ways higher than ours.

During both of my pregnancies people would often ask me whether I wanted a boy or a girls and then they would add “as long as it’s healthy right?” Yes, I want a healthy child. I do not have any wish to be made a saint through watching a child of mine suffer, but at the same time I don’t feel that I can give God conditions on the child that He has blessed us with. I have to let Him chose for us what is best. If I were to have a s sick or handicapped child would I love him any less? Would I embrace God’s will and let him bring out the best in all of us? Would I question God’s love? When I carry my children I have to embrace all possibilities, I must say “Thy will be done.”
There is an enigma of evil, how can we believe in a God of love in a world of suffering? We know from scripture that God cannot do evil, He is totally and completely motivated by love. If then we accept this as a premise than how must we view suffering? The problem then cannot be in God but must be somewhere in us. Many of us are fond of saying that one who suffers has no faith or at least not enough to keep one from suffering. But the problem is not in our faith, it is in the way that we view suffering. Thus we must begin to view suffering from a different perspective. I believe that man basically see’s suffering as something that is in and of itself evil, yet God does not see it that way. To Him I believe that the suffering of this world is a great and mighty tool of His mercy to be used to His glory and to manifest His power and dominion to mankind. In John 9:1-3 We read the story of the man born blind. When Jesus disciples asked Him who had sinned, either the man or his parents that he should be born blind, Jesus replied that neither he or his parents had sinned but it was “In order that the works of God might be displayed in him”9KJ). I believe that God IN HIS MERCY lives within and works toward our peace through the very painful circumstances that come into our lives.
Let me just stop here for a moment to explain myself. I do not intend to thoroughly investigate the theological significance of suffering in this fallen world, it’s causes and purposes. What I hope to do is to simply encourage and bring some understanding about God’s love and His thought toward us and our suffering.. That it is not without purpose, on the contrary it serves a holy function in our lives.
How can we reconcile the suffering of the world with a God of love? Some of us chose to deny that God is in ANY way connected with suffering. They chose to simply write it off to Satan, the world and the flesh. Others simply deny that there is a loving God. Yet we as Christians must acknowledge both the suffering condition of the world and sometimes our own personal lives and the merciful love of God. Rather than deny the love of God or blame the experience of suffering simply on Satan or sin, we must begin to see that God is love and that our experiences of suffering pass through the hands of a God motivated ONLY by love.
Whole sections of the Old Testament deal with the utter horrors of war and the slaughter of women and children all ordered by God Himself. Can we ignore half of the sacred scripture in order to sanitize our view of God and love? We know that God is just and that He was bringing judgment on the nations but we are talking about the slaughter of pregnant women and children! In this light is God still a God of love? YES! We must believe this, not by blocking out the facts but by coming into the knowledge that every act of God is motivated by LOVE. God is love (1 John 4:8). If we believe and accept this fact than we must accept that that God had a loving purpose in all of the scourge found in the OT wars. We know now that (briefly) the purpose was to show His power, glory and holiness, establish His name among men and to mold a people who would bring forth the Messiah, the savior of every man, woman and child. This is a big pill to swallow. Does the end justify the means? Yes. God is interested in the eternal salvation of man; this takes precedence over the temporal comfort of man.
If we are still not convinced of God’s love working through seemingly unloving events than the final example of this enigma is that of the suffering of Christ. When Christ spoke of His crucifixion, Peter responded the way many super-faith people today might respond, he rebuked Christ for confessing such a horrible thing, surely a “loving” God would have no such thing in mind! In essence Peter was telling Jesus “don’t confess that brother”! Christ harshly rebuked Peter for questioning the form and nature of God’s loving acts, even going so far as to point to Satan as the inspiration for such a thought. Peter’s faith was severely limited by his perception of “love”. I believe that Philippians 3:18-19 can be applied here, Paul said, “Join others in following my example (that of godliness, suffering and dedication) For, as I have often told you before and now say even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their mind is on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who that by the power that enables Him to bring ever thing under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
Physical health, financial prosperity and in Peters mind the earthly establishment of the Kingdom of God (or the resurrection of the nation of Israel as ta world leader), these are all earthly things that, while good do not necessarily bring about God’s plan. God is more concerned about the eternal rather than the temporal.
Yes, God wants us to be whole, but more than the individual, He wants the whole church body to be healthy, He wants us to see Him, to know Him and to lead others to Him. “Who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:4) Romans 8:17 says that we must share in the sufferings of Christ if we are to share in His glory (suffering teaches us obedience Heb. 5:8) but what are Christ’s sufferings? They are those that bring redemption.
Which of us watching the torture and crucifixion of an innocent man would call this an act of love? We would surely label such a thing as utterly cruel yet God Himself designed and ordained this torture, this unspeakable death, not only for an innocent man, but for His very own Son! And no amount of so called faith or claiming of “God’s word” would take this spectacle away. But praises be to His mysterious ways! Through the death and resurrection of Christ we are all made alive! What appeared to limited man to be the most cruel abuse was in fact the greatest act of love ever accomplished! There fore, when we cry for mercy we must be ready to accepts God’s way, a greater way, a Greater Mercy.

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