-
@ LibertyGal
2024-08-18 20:43:03I’ve been reading The Unchanging Word of God by David Jeremiah. This book has chapters from multiple books he wrote previously. I was particularly inspired by some of what I read in his chapter entitled “When You are at Your Wits’ End.” The title of this article was inspired by something he said as well.
What Prayer Says About Our Faith
To start us off, I’m going share the quote that led to this post. It is found on page 145.
A devoted believer will pray for God’s deliverance from problems, but a wiser one will pray for God’s use of them.
I would expand upon this quote and say, “In times of trouble, a foolish believer will try to fix things himself; a generally faithful believer will pray for God to deliver him from hardship; but a wise believer, who knows what an awesome, holy, good God we have, will pray for God to use the problem/hard times for good according to His will.”
Truly understanding who God is (His holiness, goodness, omniscience, omnipotence etc.) and truly understanding our own weakness and lack of understanding enables us to honestly pray “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” When we think too highly of ourselves and to lowly of God, then we want to fix things ourselves or we just ask for deliverance. Nothing that happens to us is an accident or God being unfair.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)
The Good Father
God is like a parent. He wants the best for His children, knows what is best better than His children, and gives His children what is best for their long-term good rather than their short-term happiness.
As a parent, I make my kids eat healthy food rather than the junk food they may want (especially my youngest). As a parent, I tell my kids not to do certain things that I know will cause them harm. Sometimes they don’t understand the why and try to do otherwise. When my kids were very little and just learning to crawl, I found a few spots with 1-3 steps and allowed them to fall off the steps scaring them and maybe even allowing minor pain. I did this so they would learn about the dangers of heights. If they fell off 1-3 steps, the worst thing they could get was a minor bruise and a scare. On the other hand, if they fell off a great height, they could break a bone, become paralyzed, or even die. By allowing them to have a small, short-term pain, they learned an important lesson that would prevent greater harm.
God does the same for us. He seeks our long-term good rather than our short-term comfort. He intentionally puts us through temporary hardship so we can grow in strength, wisdom, and faith to prepare us for eternity. We look at the here and now and wonder why God would allow such awful things to happen to us, but He looks at what will help us grow in faith and likeness to Himself. God is not limited by time, so He does not look at things in the same way we do. He always controls things with an eternal perspective and with complete knowledge of all things throughout eternity. He knows how each and every event or action affects every other. He works out everything according to His very good plan. We just have to reach the point of knowing that everything will work out according to God’s plan and that everything will work out for good. Sometimes God allows us to see the good in this life and other times not till we reach heaven. When we trust Jesus, we don’t have to worry.
Secure in the Storm
On page 150 of Dr. David Jeremiah’s The Unchanging Word of God, he writes:
We are far more secure in the storm with Jesus in our boat than we will ever be on the shore without Him.
Let’s start with this narrative from Luke 8:
Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (Luke 8:22-25)
In this event, The disciples are crossing a lake with Jesus in the boat. They have the creator God with them in the boat when a terrible storm rolls in while they are far from shore. Instead of trusting in their friend and God, they cry out in terror. “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Instead of looking for God’s miracles (of which they had seen many), they instantly assumed they were about to die. Did they really need to worry? Of course not. Did they need to be afraid? Not at all. God was in control. Should they have been looking for another miracle? Absolutely Yes.
How often do we fear a financial calamity, lament an illness, mourn a loss, or otherwise have the wrong attitude about things happening around us or to us? For most (all?) of us, I’d guess the answer is “way too often.” If we know how wise, loving, and powerful our God is, we shouldn’t fear, lament, or mourn. We should just trust Him. We should lay our needs before Him and trust His goodness and power will take care of things. We should be actively looking for how God is going to use these hardships.
God is good all of the time. He isn’t being unfair. He isn’t making a mistake. He isn’t being mean. He is working for our good and the good of others. Nothing can happen outside His will.
I know that living out this belief can be difficult when you are in the storm, but trust me. Hard times with Jesus are always better than easy times without Him. Yes, we really can have joy and happiness even in the worst situation when we trust Jesus and join Him in having an eternal perspective.
Trust Jesus.your
Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated
Find more articles at my Trust Jesus Substack