I stumbled upon a journal I wrote about some trials my family was walking through five years ago...I think this is a good reminder that suffering is going to happen to us in this life, but that God's love for us is better the trials we're going through and ultimately God's love is better than life.
Ps 63:3 ESV Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
This last week was an insane and intense week. My father had pneumonia in both of his lungs and the doctor looked at me a week ago and told me he was more than likely going to die. I am not going to sit here and sound all holy and say I was not punched in the gut with that news. I was. It hurt. It took me a couple of days to get my head wrapped around that idea. In fact, even writing this out still gives me chills. I will tell you that when I began to seek the Lord and I began to really get my mind and heart focused on JESUS, even amid my heartache things began to shift.
God began to do a work in my heart that was truly transformational. I read through several Psalms and a peace that surpasses all understanding began to truly invade the dark spaces in my heart. I got on my face and sought the Lord. I began with repentance. I was repenting of being arrogant in my mind and in my thoughts. I repented for not acknowledging God as truly in charge of all things. You see, we sing songs that describe God's sovereignty, and we listen to sermons that teach us about his sovereignty, but when it comes to our own lives, we tend to freak out. The truth is God's got the whole world in His hands and the buck stops with HIM! This is where faith is put into practice.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:1, 6).
We Christians talk a big game about our faith, but when trials enter the equation that is when the
rubber meets the road. That's when faith is proven.
One of the texts I was reading a lot was this text:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1 ESV).
I had been teaching several different youth groups about this text. Often, it's easier to teach it than it is to live it. Now was the time to “practice what I preach.” I got on my face many times and sought the wisdom, counsel, and peace of the LORD. And He gave me what only He could give and what I needed.
This verse became so real to me as I sat on my bed.
“When I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night” (Psalms 63:6).
It was at this moment when I started to understand and to believe that HIS LOVE FOR ME WAS BETTER THAN LIFE!
I prayed with an expectation of healing, but I also followed my prayer up with, but even if you don't
Father, I will still praise Your name and You're still good and still sovereign.
Trials have a purpose! God uses trials to mold us and shape us into the image of JESUS CHRIST!
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:15-17).
It is a packaged deal. If you want to be an heir with God and be glorified with Him, you're going to have to walk through some suffering in this life.
How can we be made like Christ without suffering? It will happen. But this is where we hold fast to the promise of Romans 8:18, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
God's LOVE is better than life! God's PROMISES to his children are better than the air we breathe.
***UPDATE***
Spoiler alert. My father is doing better. He is now in heaven enjoying his savior. We've watched God do amazing miracles in my father's physical body and now he has been fully healed and made whole by going to the presence of the Lord, Jesus Christ. God has been more than faithful to him and to us! On top of that, I have been able to experience Jesus on a personal level that I've never been able to before and it's been amazing!
GOD IS GOOD!
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