Amazing Love, Even When Life Hurts

By Wendy Wood

     The God who created the universe, the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the earth and everything in it, wrote a book.  He chose to reveal Himself and His purpose in bringing sinners to Himself through Christ. He chose to call us and elect us to unite us to Christ through faith and thereby invite us into relationship with Himself.  He has preserved His word throughout centuries, so that we might study Him and know Him.  This is a loving God.  

     Yet, we doubt His love constantly.  We ask ourselves, if not out loud, “How could a loving God give me this husband?”  “How could a loving God allow my mother to die of cancer?”  “How could a loving God allow a tornado or flood to wipe out thousands of people?”  How could a loving God put me in an unloving family for my childhood?”  “How could a loving God allow me to suffer so long?”   We tend to look at our circumstances to define God’s love, rather than look at scripture and interpret our circumstances through the truth that God reveals about Himself in His word.

God’s love is covenantal

    In Jeremiah 31:3 God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”  God’s love is everlasting because He is everlasting in character.  His love is based on who He is, not who you are.  Deuteronomy 7:6-9 shows us that God’s love was set on us by His choosing.  We cannot lose His love because we did nothing to earn it or deserve it to begin with.  

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.  It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”  (Deuteronomy 7:6-9)

God’s love is covenantal love.  He swears by His own name that He will love His people.  When our circumstances tempt us to question and doubt God’s love, we must go to His word and renew our minds in the amazing faithfulness of His love.  His love is set on us by His purpose, and nothing can thwart His purpose.  (Job 42:2).

God’s love is compassionate

     God’s love is not only everlasting, it is compassionate and gentle.  Psalm 91 is a beautiful picture of His love as protection and refuge in times of distress. 

 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say to the Lord, My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.  For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.  He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge, his faithfulness is a shield and buckler” (vs 1-4).  

God paints a picture of Himself as a bird with large wings which He uses to protect His young and vulnerable children.  He covers us in His love and promises that nothing can harm us in the eyes of eternity.  Isaiah 40:11 draws a picture of God as the Good Shepherd protecting His sheep under his arm and carrying a wounded lamb next to His warmth.  God does not promise that we will be free from experiencing hardships and trials.  In fact, much of scripture tells us that all true children of God will experience suffering and persecution.  However, God’s love is gentle and protecting.  His love is a refuge and shelter in those times of hurting.  When we feel like our circumstances have taken us out of God’s loving care, we must go back to His word and who He reveals Himself to be.  God is the protector and keeper of our souls - our eternal being that will be with Him forever.  He is holding our salvation and eternity in the shelter of His wing and under the refuge of His arm.  Your feelings are not real.  Your thoughts determine how you will respond to your hardships.  Set your mind on the Truth.  God’s love is gentle, protecting, and compassionate.

God’s love on the cross

     Nowhere do we see God’s amazing love more on display than on the cross.  Even before ever getting to the cross, Jesus endured injurious treatment.  Matthew 27 tells us “they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand.  And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!”  And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.  And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the rove and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him” (vs 27-30).  Why did a loving God allow His Son to endure such treatment?  First and foremost because He is displaying His glory - the beauty of His character in holiness, righteousness, mercy, grace, justice, wrath, love.  He is zealous for His glory but when we are in Christ, our good is tied to His glory.  Jesus suffered and died because it glories Him and we see that in His love for us!  On the cross, the crowd and soldiers continue to mock him and falsely accuse Him of lying and blasphemy.  Jesus experiences the ultimate suffering when He cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Here we would be tempted to question God’s love if we were the ones on the cross.  Yet, Jesus commits His Spirit to His Father and willingly dies to fulfill the will of God.  God’s love for Jesus, and us, kept Jesus on the cross for three hours.  God loved Jesus (“This is my Son, whom I love”) and us so much that he ordained Jesus to suffer and die in our place (Acts 2:23).  Jesus endured the complete wrath of God for our sins.  God determined how much and how long Jesus’ suffering would be because He loved Jesus completely.  Jesus knew that “the joy set before Him” (Hebrews 12:2) to glorify God and be in His Father’s presence was worth it.  Jesus trusted His Father completely that this was the way to victory and, in Jesus’ case, re-uniting with the Father. Why three hours?  God does not reveal everything to us (Deuteronomy 29:29).  You can be sure that whatever the length of your suffering, it is the right duration.  God loves us so much, that He purposed Jesus to suffer beyond description, so that we could be united with Him through faith by grace.  When the temptation to doubt God’s love and care for you comes, stop and think about the cross.  Think about God choosing His Son, whom He loves, to suffer the entirety of God’s wrath on Himself, to rescue you from eternal separation from Him.  There can be no doubt of the genuine, strong love of God in the face of the cross.

God’s love is for your sake

     One of the hardest times to trust God’s love is when a trial is continuing on for a length of time and you start to despair that God has forgotten you.  John 11 is my favorite view of God’s unusual way to love us.  Here, Jesus is across the Jordan doing ministry with His disciples.  Mary and Martha send word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is sick.  Twice, within three verses, scripture mentions that these are people Jesus loved (vs 3 and 5).  Yet, when Jesus hears that someone He loves is sick, He doesn’t rush to Lazarus’ side to heal him.  John 11:5-6 says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.”  What?!  Jesus loved them.  How could a loving God not rush to their sides to immediately take care of the situation and remove the suffering?  God has already provided the answer in verse 4.  “It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it”.  Jesus loved them TOO much to rescue them immediately from this suffering.  He has greater plans for them to simply live a comfortable and easy life.  Verse 15 says, “and for your sake, I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe.”  Wow!  Could it be that your suffering is FOR YOUR SAKE?  Could it be that God loves you too much to cut your suffering short and not allow it to produce in you all that is meant to?  Could it be that God loves too much to end the trial before you give Him glory?  God knows that true joy and life are found only in glorifying Him.  Your trial, your difficult situation, is for your sake.  It is designed by the love of God, SO THAT you may believe, give glory to God, and find true joy.  

     And then, Jesus acts.  We see Jesus “deeply moved” in verse 38.  Jesus hears the doubt of his friends and their questioning of His motives and He is grieved for their hearts and souls.  Jesus is FOR us.  And that means that He does whatever it takes to reveal His glory and draw us to Himself because as we delight in Him, we glorify Him. It is all linked to His love.  Jesus cares about Mary, Martha, and Lazarus and He cares about you.   He was moved by compassion.  Jesus was affected by the doubts, questions,  pain, and sadness of those He loved.  He then acts on their behalf.  He calls Lazarus out of the grave, just as He will call us out of the grave for eternity.  We will rise when He calls us home, too.  God’s love is compassionate.  God is standing outside of time looking through the lens of eternity.  The situation with Lazarus was playing a bigger role from that eternal perspective than just a family hurting over the death of a loved one.  Your suffering is playing a bigger role in the perspective of eternity than you can see.  It will take trust and faith in God, and in His love, to endure joyfully and trust His love.

Your response to God’s love

     God’s love is not in question.  That circumstance, that broken relationship, that illness, that trial that has gone on for years and years, is evidence of God’s love for you.  Will you trust Him?  Will you give thanks to God that He loves you too much to cut the suffering short?  Will you thank Him for not rushing to rescue you immediately because He has something greater planned?

     God’s love is beyond description and, frankly, beyond understanding.  But God makes Himself known in His Word.  Dig in.  Feast on the amazing love of God as revealed by Him.

This is How He Carries You

by Lauren Washer

It’s too much, Lord. I can’t count the number of times I’ve uttered some form of these words. Sometimes I whisper through my tears and other times I scribble furiously onto the pages of my journal—early morning thoughts after news of another hardship. Another friend’s suffering. My own difficult circumstances. A world in physical, emotional, and spiritual upheaval.

I imagine you can relate. The weight feels unbearable. You try to muster up strength, but you can’t. Weak and weary, you wonder if you’ll have what it takes to survive what’s in front of you. We fear we’ll be consumed by our grief. We can’t see how there could possibly be enough grace.

Can I make it, Lord? Will they? 

These are the questions I bring to the Lord when I know I—and those around me—don’t seem to have enough resilience or strength to endure the hardship we’re facing. And do you know what the Lord continues to remind me? It’s not up to me.

Our ability to endure suffering is completely dependent upon God’s power at work within us. He walks beside us, wipes our tears, comforts us in our sorrow, and leads us through the darkest valleys. 

But sometimes—even when we know what’s true—we don’t always feel it. So, if you’re struggling to believe God is with you in whatever you’re facing right now, I hope you find comfort in these words. Because whether we feel it or not, we have the promise of God’s presence.

In the book of Deuteronomy we find Moses’ final words to God’s people before they cross over to the Promised Land. As Moses recounts their experiences, he says something I’ve never been able to forget. Recounting the people’s rebellion against God, and the subsequent consequence of wandering in the wilderness for forty years, Moses reminded them:

“…and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place” (Deuteronomy 1:31).

God was with them those forty years. He provided for their needs. He gave Moses the wisdom to appoint leaders when the burden of leadership became too difficult. God went before them in a cloud and fire. All the way, God carried them.

God is still faithful to carry his people.

This is how he carries you.

//

I walk into the kitchen to begin prepping dinner when I see a truck beside our front gate. Before the doorbell rings, I step out onto the porch and call to my neighbor. She turns around, a large box in her arms. Before a hello even escapes my lips, she says:

“I just didn’t think you should make dinner tonight.” My shoulders slump, I smile, tilt my head to the side, and look at her with tears brimming in my eyes. When I express my thanks, she simply says—in her delightful Aussie accent—, “It’s nothing,” and then scurries away to tend to her six week old baby.

This wasn’t the first time someone had brought us a meal. Between babies, deployments, and moves, we’ve been handed our fair share of family favorite casseroles. This one was different. My neighbor down the street is not a close friend. And yet, there she was, on my front porch, bringing me a meal. 

I was continually surprised during Bradley’s recent deployment by the ways God carried us. Food, encouraging texts, free meals from the public school, friends who would pop over mid-afternoon, gift cards in the mail, and pizza delivered to the front door. On the days when I felt like I couldn’t bear the weight any longer, God would send a gift to bolster my weary soul.

God loves to surprise his people. For forty years he rained bread from heaven to sustain his people in the wilderness. He made water come from a rock when they were thirsty, and twice parted huge bodies of water so they could go where he sent them. 

If you’re wobbling beneath a heavy load, be patient. Wait expectantly. Pay attention.

God carries you through unexpected provisions.

//

I shift the toddler to my other hip and steady her while I pull my mask back over my face. We’re singing the final song at the end of the service and tears begin to pool in my eyes. I look to my left, then to my right. The older couple whose granddaughter just died. A family from our community group. New people I’ve yet to meet. My dear friend who listened to me pour out my heart at the beach the other day.

Our pastor raises his hands and proclaims a benediction over his flock, and it’s in this moment, surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ, that I realize: this is necessary. In all her imperfections, through all of her shortcomings, despite all the ways she fails to live in a manner pleasing to the Lord—my spiritual family is essential to my faith. 

I can’t explain the phenomenon of gathering with other believers, but it’s powerful. We receive prayer, words of truth, reminders of God’s faithfulness. Our brothers and sisters comfort of us with the comfort they received in their own hardship. We lift our burdens to the Lord and shoulder the weight together.

God carries you through the Church.

//

We were sitting in a room to the side of the church auditorium, minutes before the service started. Grief-stricken over my brother’s sudden death, our family was dreading what we were about to face. But I’ll never forget the way Mom looked at us and shared her experience with God’s grace. She explained how over the past few days—when the next moment seemed impossible, when she wasn’t sure how God would sustain her in the overwhelming loss of her son—God’s grace would be there. Never early, never late. But he was giving it. Constantly. 

We want to know exactly how God will provide for our needs or reassure us of his presence. But we won’t always know and sometimes his presence won’t appear in tangible ways. I can’t explain the ways the Spirit upholds our souls, but he always does. He might bring a verse from our Bible study or a recent sermon to mind. A song enters our earbuds, speaking truth and comfort. Sometimes, our days go smoothly, the kids obey cheerfully, and we make it to bedtime without crumbling to the floor. And other days, when everything falls to pieces, somehow we don’t fall apart and the joy of the Lord bubbles up inside of us. 

God carries you by his grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

//

When the Israelites stood at the edge of the Promised Land, they were tired. They had wandered for forty years, Moses was about to die, and they were on the brink of battles to take the new land. Do you know what Moses said to them? Repeatedly? Obey God. Don’t forget his commands. Be careful to remember. Love and worship God, nothing else.

I find it helpful to notice what Moses didn’t say. He didn’t tell them to sit back, relax, and take care of themselves in whatever way felt good because, phew, after all that hardship, they sure deserved it.

Can I be honest with you? This is often what I would like to be told, especially when I’m weary. Can I just check out for a few minutes? Often times I do. I scroll Instagram rather than sitting down with my children at the end of the day. I’ll set aside a difficult task, because let’s face it: it’s been a long morning and I could use a few minutes to myself. Obviously there’s a place for rest; God also commanded a sabbath. But I’m talking about the temptation to relax our affections and turn them away from God. 

In the face of difficulties we can be tempted to think we deserve to satisfy our cravings however we want. So instead of engaging in rest carefully and handling self-care with wisdom, we indulge and forget to rest in Christ. This can result in a divided heart.

We’re not called to quit when life gets hard. God calls us to live lives of faithful endurance. So we take the next step. Do the work before us. Walk in love. Obey with joy. We tend to our souls with care and diligence. Fix our eyes on our eternal hope: Jesus. 

Perhaps this isn’t the most comforting way to end a blog post about God’s provision and presence, but it’s the truth. God demands our obedience. And we’ll want to abandon his call, look for satisfaction elsewhere, and place our affections on lesser things. But just as he persisted with his people throughout the Old Testament, God will keep wooing us back. He’ll remind us of Jesus. Jesus never wavered in his obedience, and he never gave up. His eyes were fixed on the joy of being reunited with his Father.

So too, we keep obeying. And somehow, as we live as though we’ve been changed by Christ, we’re changed in the process, and we grow to love Jesus more. 

God carries you through your obedience to him.

//

Dear weary sister, whatever you face today, tomorrow, or whatever continues to weigh you down from the past, God will carry you through it all. 

He’s not giving up or abandoning us. So lean into his strength. Rest in God’s power. Trust in the One who loved us enough to carry the weight of our sin on his shoulders. He bore the fullness of God’s wrath on the cross so we could be set free. Rejoice that even now Jesus is carrying us before the throne of grace, interceding on our behalf before the Father. Cling to the promise of his love which will never let you go. 

Hold onto the Living Hope who guards you until you obtain fullness with Christ. He will carry you all the way to your eternal home in heaven.

This is how he carries you.

For further study and reflection, consider the following verses:

Psalm 46
Isaiah 43:1-4
Romans 8:18-39
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Hebrews 7:22-25
James 1:1-15
1 Peter 1:3-9

Posted at: http://laurenwasher.com/this-is-how-he-carries-you/

When You Want More than Manna, Remember This

By Leah Ryg

“Can we please just get something to eat?” the young woman begged her boyfriend again. He was trying to get her to take a romantic walk with him down the orchard lane. He hadn’t expected her to be so irritable right before he popped the big question! Thankfully, though she was “hangry”, my mom’s grumbling didn’t stop her from saying “Yes!” to my dad’s marriage proposal.

“Hangry” is a slang term used when one is angry because of their hunger. Clearly, an empty stomach affects one’s mood! Just one hangry person can be a lot to handle, but imagine leading a whole nation that is complaining. This was the reality for Moses as he led the Israelites through the wilderness. However, the Lord didn’t let them starve. God always gives his people what they need, when they need it.

Strength for Today

And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (Ex. 16:4).

The Lord heard his people’s grumbling and promised to provide what they lacked. The reason for this was so that they would know he is the Lord and learn to depend on him alone. Exodus 16:21 tells us what happened after the people received the bread:

Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted.

God gave enough strength for only one day.

Some people gathered little and some much, but God had determined what was the right amount for each individual’s need (Ex. 16:18). Yet some weren’t satisfied with this daily provision and became greedy. When they tried to stash away the manna for tomorrow’s use, it became like that splotchy, green bread molding in the back of your refrigerator (Ex. 16:21).

God wanted the Israelites to rely on him alone for daily strength. He didn’t want them to forget about his provision and assume they could survive without him. The Lord knows us personally and understands our individual struggles and temptations.

I, too, have sometimes been tempted to wonder if God’s provision is really enough. Choosing my major seems impossible without knowing the big picture of my life after college. God hasn’t shown me my future career or how I’ll use what I’m learning in my classes. But, he has given me “manna”—just enough strength and guidance to make the decisions of today. I don’t actually need to know the whole story of my future because I trust the One who is writing it. When I confess my pride, God forgives and frees me to trust him. Like the writer of the classic hymn, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, I have “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.” [1]

Don’t Worry. Pray!

When we think of the future, it’s easy to worry about what we’ll eat and wear, but our heavenly Father knows our needs (Matt. 6:31-32). In light of this, Jesus instructs us:

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matt. 6:34).

How can we avoid worrying about tomorrow? We can pray. Jesus taught his disciples to pray using these words: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). When we ask God for “daily bread”, it can mean more than yeast and flour. It can also apply to the needs we have in our relationships with other people. “Daily bread” could be God-given strength to not retaliate at a coworker. It might mean strength to forgive the friend who constantly disappoints you or to love those who have wronged you most. God’s faithful provision of today’s “manna” builds our trust that he will also provide the strength we’ll need tomorrow.

In Matthew 4:4, Jesus tells us the true source of this strength:

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Corrie ten Boom is an example of one who courageously relied on God’s word for daily strength. During World War II, Corrie and her family hid many Jews in a secret room in their home, which led to their imprisonment at a Nazi concentration camp. Corrie and her sister valued scripture so much that they risked their lives by sneaking a Bible into the camp. In God’s word, they found strength to endure each brutal day. They chose to rely on God’s promises rather than to worry about the unknowns of their future, even when their lives were on the line. Corrie wisely said,

Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength—carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength. [2]

More than Manna

Worry reveals the weakness of our sinful, human nature and the painful weight of this broken world. We want more than “manna.” We long to be forever satisfied.

Jesus told his followers:

The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world… I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes me in me shall never thirst (Jn. 6:33).

When God provided manna for the people of Israel, he was feeding their temporary, physical needs as a picture of what he can do to meet our eternal, spiritual needs. The hunger of our hearts can’t be filled with bread. This is why we need a Savior. Jesus came down from heaven to save us from our sin so that he might be our hope for eternal life.

Jesus is the “bread of life”, and lasting fullness comes only through him. So, let’s stop trusting ourselves. Instead, let’s keep praying for “daily bread”—for our strength to come from God alone. He is enough manna for today. Praise God for giving us a Savior who rescues us from all our grumbling! No matter how hungry we may be, in Christ our souls can be forever full.

_____

1. Thomas O. Chisholm, “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, 1923, public domain.

2. Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook (Thomas Nelson, Inc, 1982), 31.

posted at: https://unlockingthebible.org/2021/01/when-you-want-more-than-manna/