Tag: god’s presence

Where Is God in My Suffering? (Psalm 22:23-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Crucifixion, by Georges Rouault, 1937

“Praise him, you servants of the Lord!
    Honor him, you descendants of Jacob!
    Worship him, you people of Israel!
He does not neglect the poor or ignore their suffering;
    he does not turn away from them,
    but answers when they call for help.”

In the full assembly I will praise you for what you have done;
    in the presence of those who worship you
    I will offer the sacrifices I promised.
The poor will eat as much as they want;
    those who come to the Lord will praise him.
May they prosper forever!

All nations will remember the Lord.
    From every part of the world they will turn to him;
    all races will worship him.
The Lord is king,
    and he rules the nations.

All proud people will bow down to him;
    all mortals will bow down before him.
Future generations will serve him;
    they will speak of the Lord to the coming generation.
People not yet born will be told:
    “The Lord saved his people.” (Good News Translation)

I find that a great deal of truth and reality in this world is something of a mystery and a paradox. Christianity, especially, is a religion of paradox, in my opinion. For example, God is Three – Father, Son, and Spirit – but God is One. Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine, at the same time, all the time. And when it comes to the spiritual life, suffering exists, and God is sovereign and in control of all things.

This then, is what prompts many people to question if there is really a God – since so much suffering exists throughout the world. Yet, it’s necessary to maintain the tension that hard circumstances, adversity, and difficulty in the form of awful suffering, and the preeminence of the Lord God almighty, both exist without taking anything away from either of them.

The severity of suffering, nor the supreme majesty of God, need to be watered down in any way in order to try and make sense of our existential situations.

“Suffering” is a word we would like to avoid. Even saying or reading the word might make some folks cringe. Suffering? No thanks. I think I’ll pass on that. Yet, something inside of us instinctively knows we cannot get around it. Everyone suffers in some way. It is endemic to the human condition that at times we will suffer physically, financially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. 

That’s why I believe there is so much talk within some Christian circles about miracles. It’s more than understandable:

  • a chronic pain sufferer wants relief, so she prays for a miracle of health
  • a small business owner is bleeding financially, and looks to God for an immediate miracle of wealthy clients
  • a beloved senior saint knows she is afflicted with Alzheimer’s, so she prays for the miracle of deliverance, even to be taken home to be with the Lord
  • a young adult finds himself in the throes of depression and has tried everything to cope and get out of it, so he petitions God for a miracle out of the deep black hole
  • a believer in Jesus keeps experiencing a besetting sin and cannot get over it, so she looks to God for the miracle of not struggling any more with it

These scenarios and a thousand other maladies afflict people everywhere. There are a multitude of stories out there. Folks who have experienced a miracle tell of their wonderful deliverance. But what about the rest? Those without the miracle? Do they have a lack of faith? Has God forgotten them?

Oh, my, no! God sees, and God knows. God is acquainted with suffering. Jesus knows it first-hand. Remember that it was Jesus who said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)

Even Jesus cried out in his suffering. But there was no deliverance coming for him.  There was, however, deliverance coming for us.

Sometimes the greatest miracle and deliverance of all is to be freed from the need for a miracle. The reason God doesn’t just offer immediate relief from everyone’s suffering and bring a divine miracle is that the Lord is doing something else: Walking with us through our suffering. God oftentimes has plans and purposes for us that are well beyond our understanding. 

We simply are not privy to everything in God’s mind.

We may not get the miracle we desire. Yet, what we will get without fail, is God’s provision and steadfast love all the way through the suffering.

Where is God in your suffering? Right beside you. Jesus is suffering with you. You are not crying alone; Christ weeps with you.

Let, then, those who suffer, eat and be full. Let them be satisfied with the portion God has given them. And, what’s more, let them offer praise to the God who is squarely beside them in every affliction and each trouble.

God Almighty, you are the One who knows suffering and affliction better than anyone. I admit I don’t often understand what in the world you are doing or not doing in my life and in the lives of those I love. Yet, I admit that I have found in you the comfort, encouragement, and strength to live another day in my trouble. For this, I praise you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Selective Memory (Psalm 25:1-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
    do not let me be put to shame;
    do not let my enemies exult over me.
Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame;
    let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
    teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
    for you are the God of my salvation;
    for you I wait all day long.

Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
    for they have been from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
    according to your steadfast love remember me,
    for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

Good and upright is the Lord;
    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right
    and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
    for those who keep his covenant and his decrees. (New Revised Standard Version)

I admit there are things from my past I am neither proud of nor happy about. Yet, I give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord God Almighty because of divine selective memory. 

“I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”

God (Jeremiah 31:34, NRSV)

God remembers according to the divine nature and God’s character of merciful grace and steadfast love. I’m glad the Lord doesn’t act based upon the stupid sins of my younger yesteryear. God freely chooses to forgive and has made the means available for us to experience daily cleansing and victory through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Memory is a major theme in the Old Testament. The importance of remembering pops up again and again throughout Holy Scripture. The way in which our minds and hearts remember past events is of great spiritual significance. 

Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:15, NRSV)

“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus (Matthew 28:20b, NRSV)

Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. (2 Timothy 2:8-9, NRSV)

We are not to keep dwelling upon and remembering the former indiscretions of ourselves or others. To continue ruminating on a foolish decision or a poor choice only erodes our ability for resilience and perseverance.

The fact of the matter is that God does not hold those past regrets over our heads, and so, neither are we to do it. Forgiveness isn’t only for others; it’s meant to be directed to ourselves, as well. The ability to forgive enables us to leave the past in the past, without belching it up every day and chewing on it, like a cow with her cud.

Sometimes we are prone to remember the things we ought to forget, and forget those things we really should remember. Before us and in our minds continually is to remember the great works of God, especially in redemption. 

Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13b-14, NRSV)

What we have done or failed to do, and what has happened to us in the past, is not the real problem; the most prescient issue right now is how you and I interpret those past events.

Today we can choose to remember the way God remembers. The health of all our relationships is dependent on this ability. Everyone on planet earth encounters difficult people, challenging relationships, obnoxious neighbors, and hurtful family members. Paying attention to our memory and how we choose to remember can be a significant part of interacting with others. 

I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. (Ephesians 1:16-17, NRSV)

If we like it that God has shown grace to us, then the least we can do is let that same grace flow from us to others – and to ourselves – we who neither deserve it, nor expect it. 

Let’s give thanks to the Lord, for God is good in forgiving sin and showing infinite mercy. And let’s express our gratitude through selfless words and acts of grace which reflect the nature of God.

Gracious God, you do not hold grudges; you always act according to your own loving character. Even though you could have condemned me, you saved me. Despite the fact that I have fallen short of your glory, you delivered me. I today remember your mighty redemptive deeds accomplished in your Son, my Lord, Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit are one God, now and forever. To you, blessed Holy Trinity, I give my abiding praise and thanksgiving. Amen.

A Divine Appointment (2 Kings 8:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
The prophet Elisha and the Shunammite woman, by Pieter Lastman, 1620

Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had brought back to life: “You and your household must go away and live wherever you can, because the Lord has called for a famine. It is coming to the land and will last seven years.”

So the woman went and did what the man of God asked. She and her household moved away, living in Philistia seven years. When seven years had passed, the woman returned from Philistia. She went to appeal to the king for her house and her farmland. The king was speaking to Gehazi, the man of God’s servant, asking him, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” So Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had brought the dead to life. At that very moment, the woman whose son he had brought back to life began to appeal to the king for her house and her farmland.

Gehazi said, “Your Majesty, this is the woman herself! And this is her son, the one Elisha brought to life!”

The king questioned the woman, and she told him her story. Then the king appointed an official to help her, saying, “Return everything that belongs to her, as well as everything that the farmland has produced, starting from the day she left the country until right now.” (Common English Bible)

People of faith typically don’t see divine appointments coming at all; they often show up in the middle of hard mundane days.

The prophecies and actions of the prophet Elisha are covered in the book of 2 Kings with a series of ten incredible narratives (chapters 2-9). Each of them are designed to demonstrate the power of God over (and sometimes against) the power of the king.

This was important because the royal decisions and actions of most of the Israelite kings were quite disconnected from God’s law and justice. Most kings did whatever they wanted, sometimes to the point of completely leading the people away from the worship of Yahweh and toward the worship of other gods.

Today’s Old Testament lesson concerns the ninth story in this series of narratives. A widow, whose son Elisha had restored to life in the second narrative (2 Kings 4:8-37) left for the land of the Philistines when there was a severe famine. Although the woman was simply listening to the prophet and doing what he said, squatters took advantage of the situation and took over her house and property while she was away.

In a clear demonstration of what a “divine appointment” looks like in Holy Scripture, Elisha’s servant and the king were talking together about this very woman and the miracle that took place with her son. The prophet had essentially raised her dead child to life. Then, lo and behold, the woman walked into the conversation to appeal the injustice that had happened to her and her family.

Even the worst of kings would discern the right thing to do in such a situation. After questioning the woman, the king ensured that she would get everything restored to her. Through it all, we are meant to see the power and sovereignty of God over the human authority of political kings.

I hope that you, at some point in your life, have experienced a meeting with another person that you can see was unmistakably arranged by God. And a great need you had was met because of this encounter. The Lord blessed you through it in a way that you didn’t see coming at all.

The fact of the matter is that God is sovereign, all-knowing, and all-powerful, along with being infinitely gracious, good, just, right, and loving. Therefore, God sets about to bless both us and other people. And when God determines to do something, nothing and no one in heaven or on earth can stop it.

Wherever you presently are, and whatever it is you are doing now in your life, is really no accident. And if your life situation is awful and far from any sort of idyllic scene of blessing, then please know that this is a circumstance that is ripe for a divine appointment.

For how could we ever know God as the Great Deliverer unless we were between a rock and a hard place with nowhere to turn? How could we ever experience God as the Divine Healer unless we were broken and/or brokenhearted?

How could we ever realize God as Provider unless we were out of resources and down to our last penny? Or God as Helper unless we were desperate and unable to move? Or God as the One who restores unless we had lost everything?

Just as there cannot be resurrection and new life without a crucifixion and an old life, so our lives will inevitably take a trajectory of suffering and hardship before glory and blessing. In order to allow the good to completely fill us, we must be totally emptied of everything else.

Maybe you will never experience something quite as dramatic as the woman did with gaining her son back to life, and her property restored after a terrible famine, but know this: The great Lord and God of all, the Sovereign of the universe, has your back through all that you’re going through on this earth.

I often get asked by patients and parishioners alike, “Where is God?” It feels to them that God is absent, silent, and far from understanding what they’re going through in the midst of their very challenging adversity.

Really, however, it’s actually an easy question for me to answer: Jesus is our Immanuel, God with us. The Spirit of God is right beside you, walking with you, even holding you up at times, through all the crud and crap of this old fallen sinful world of ours. Seeing only one set of footsteps in the sand, it turns out God is the One that carries the weak and weary in their trouble. The Lord is anything but absent.

If God has authority over earthly rulers, then the Lord most certainly has power to handle your life.

O God, why have you abandoned me? Though you have hidden your face from me, still from this dread and empty place, I cry to you, who have promised me that underneath are your everlasting arms. God, you are my help and comfort; you shelter and surround me in love so tender that I may know your presence with me, now and always. Amen.

The Everlasting God (Isaiah 40:21-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
    Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning?
    Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded?
God inhabits the earth’s horizon—
    its inhabitants are like locusts—
    stretches out the skies like a curtain
    and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling.
    God makes dignitaries useless
    and the earth’s judges into nothing.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
    scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth
    when God breathes on them, and they dry up;
    the windstorm carries them off like straw.
So to whom will you compare me,
    and who is my equal? says the holy one.

Look up at the sky and consider:
    Who created these?
    The one who brings out their attendants one by one,
    summoning each of them by name.
Because of God’s great strength
    and mighty power, not one is missing.
Why do you say, Jacob,
    and declare, Israel,
    “My way is hidden from the Lord,
    my God ignores my predicament”?
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?
    The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the creator of the ends of the earth.
    He doesn’t grow tired or weary.
His understanding is beyond human reach,
    giving power to the tired
    and reviving the exhausted.
Youths will become tired and weary,
    young men will certainly stumble;
    but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength;
    they will fly up on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not be tired;
    they will walk and not be weary. (Common English Bible)

Strength, endurance, and perseverance are vital resources which come from the reservoir of spiritual resources.  One does not simply will it into reality, and, poof! It is there! No, these resources must be drawn from a source that is reliable and continual.

Whenever you and I are persuaded to use an unreliable and/or limited resource, like our own, or some slick marketed one, we are not revived or restored to keep going and persevere through a given situation. In such times, we may naively think that God is absent, and cry, “God ignores my predicament.”

But God isn’t sleeping. The Lord hasn’t gone out to lunch or taken a bathroom break. God is not the problem. 

We actually thought we could handle our own junk, independently, without any help, saying, “I’ve got this!”  Maybe, for a while, you did. But then the strength ran out; weariness overwhelmed you. All of sudden, it seems, you have overestimated yourself, and underestimated God. 

With no steady and reliable resource to draw from, your brain’s thinking became distorted, and your heart’s confidence sunk. That’s because the sovereign and majestic God is the One who gives power and life, and there was trust in other things beside the Lord.

Yet, placing our hope in the God who is there, is to plunge into an inexhaustible and gracious pool of strength.  God enables us to fly and soar above our human predicaments and our daily problems. With the power God provides, we can carry-on and follow-through with the demands, duties, and desires of life on this earth which God created for us.

To draw from the deep well of God, it is thus extremely necessary to meet with this God on a regular and consistent basis. If food and drink for the body requires multiple daily attention and time, then filling the soul is just as, and even more, important.

This need for daily spiritual food and drink is why I choose to engage in the Divine Hours, also known as the Daily Office, or Fixed Hour Prayer. At certain set times in the day I break away from what I’m doing to give attention to the soul by drawing from the merciful resources of God. 

Perhaps this might be for you, as well, a fresh way to address your parched and needy soul.

Here is a link to the Divine Hours, based on the book of prayers compiled by Phyllis Tickle:

explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/hours.php

Yet, no matter the particulars of how we address meeting with God, consistently drawing from the well of grace is vital to our spiritual and emotional health.

Set me free, O God, from the bondage of my sins, and give me the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to me in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen