Suffering

Suffering.
2/12/06
Sometimes when we suffer, we feel that God’s promises are just a consolation prize. In Isaiah 61 we read about how the Lord binds up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom and releasing them from darkness. These are good promises, but a suffering person wants more. He or she wants restoration, answers, justice . . . in other words, actions on the part of God which balance out the pain and grief being experienced.

Our enemy does all he can to turn us away from loving and serving God, especially identity theft. Satan hands us the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so that we would walk in our own authority, even in the church. This seems empowering in the face of being victimized by loss. But eating of this fruit enables us to do God’s will our way (or our will in God’s house) and this is what the enemy wants us to do. We are much too dangerous to satan’s kingdom when we are submitted under God’s authority. Therefore, satan robs, destroys, kills and cripples to turn our hearts toward the temptations which come through pain and grief. In our suffering, we can get confused, and lose sense of God’s purpose for our lives. We are then tempted to return to our own identity, the old man Adam.

This is not God’s plan for the brokenhearted. Let’s look at one of the things God brings us when wounded. In verse 6 of Isaiah 61, He tells us that we will be called priests and named ministers. If you were broken hearted, you might consider this a burden you could not carry. Having Jesus be a priest for all of us may seem enough. When we are under the weight of suffering, we do not necessarily want to feel the weight of anyone else’s needs, including our own. But this is an area in which our enemy takes further advantage of us by blinding us to who we are in Christ. He engages us in the “blame game”.

A look at his game should expose the temptations we encounter during suffering. They are blame, grumbling, and false accusations, to name a few. If we realize our heart is not right in these attitudes, we are led into an endless cycle of blaming ourselves, and asking for forgiveness because we still feel the sting of our loss. We become trapped in dead works because loss is something we may feel long after we have forgiven.
The repeated ritual of giving forgiveness and repenting of unforgiveness causes confusion when we look into the promises of God’s word; oil of gladness and comfort for those who mourn, a garland for ashes, and a mantle of praise for a spirit of fainting. Grief blinds us to seeing God’s provision for us when we are standing on our own. This is not God’s plan for the brokenhearted. God’s intention is to restore us. He calls us priests, not to comfort us, or as a prize we won through suffering; He is restoring us to our identity.

Jesus learned how He could be a priest for us by being tempted as we are, including suffering pain and grief, yet not sinning (Heb 4:15). God holds out to us healing leaves from this Tree of Life. He restores us in Christ, calling us priests so that we can minister to others through our grief. God’s calling isn’t a consolation prize; it’s His plan. And yes, one day we will see the enemy who has caused us so much pain placed under our feet (Rm 16:20).