No other Agenda... but the Cross of Christ.

Fascinating word... Agenda. An agenda can be a list or outline of things to be considered or done in a fixed period of time, such as agendas for business or faculty meetings. It could be the official work plan for a committee meeting. It can be a temporary but highly organized plan for matters to be negotiated among rival groups.

There can be an underlying and quite often ideological plan or program associated with an agenda. An agenda might be political in nature.... the agenda of the Democratic Party.... of the Republican Party or any special interest group that wants to capture attention, control the discourse and debate while manipulating the achievement of a goal. It can be the list of business to be brought before an elected Assembly, such as a state legislature. Quite often an agenda is the framework for negotiation and compromise. Anyone can have an agenda... all you need is a cause, a purpose, an idea, a goal and expectations.

People love agendas... we use them all the time. It’s a neatly framed way to control situations, get our own way or negotiate an advantage based on our experiences. We even try to use our agendas with God.

When we come to Christ, we come with our own agendas and assumptions about what the relationship should be like. None of us comes to Christ with a blank slate. Rather, we bring opinions formed by life experiences. Perhaps our agenda is political. Perhaps it is theological or intellectual. Perhaps it is racial or social. Whatever it is, we expect Jesus to buy in. We want him to sign our petition or endorse our cause. If he doesn't, we're not so sure we want to follow Him.

In Luke 20, Jesus has encounters with two different groups of people that should inspire us to question to what degree we come to Christ with our own agendas. First, the religious officials question Jesus' authority, and Jesus responds with parables that expose their sin. Luke tells us in 20:19-20 that these religious leaders were looking for a way to turn the tables on Jesus. They sent spies to ask Jesus a question they hoped would catch him off guard. Two groups that normally despised each other, the Pharisees and Herodians, crafted an agenda based on their mutual hatred of Jesus.

Their “agenda” called for them to come to him with flattering words, praising him for being a teacher of truth, and then ask him the perfect question for squeezing someone between a rock and a hard place... "Is it in keeping with the law of Moses to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" If Jesus said they should pay the tax, the Jewish people would brand him a traitor. The Jews hated this tax. If Jesus instructed them not to pay the tax, he would have been branded an insurrectionist by the Roman authorities. Rome didn't tolerate people like that.

Jesus “detected their trickery.” He turns the table... and asked them a question (vs 24)... "Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?" They produce the coin and answer, ..."Caesar's." Then Jesus says to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." They were unable to trip him up, their mutual agenda fell apart and they were reduced to silence.

In the second encounter in Luke 20, Jesus is approached by a group of men called Sadducees. This was an aristocratic group made up of priestly families of Jerusalem. They were worldly and wealthy. Even though they were religious, they were the rationalistic intellectuals of their day. So, just as the Pharisees and the Herodians had a political agenda, these guys had a theological and philosophical agenda. Unlike the Pharisees, they didn't believe in life after death or in the resurrection of the dead, and their conflict with Jesus was that he had already predicted his own resurrection.

Their Agenda – they knew that if they were right, then Jesus could be discredited as a phony. To prove it, they approached Jesus (verses 27-33) with a hypothetical situation designed to make anyone who believed in the resurrection look ridiculous.

Quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, the Sadducees refer to a law that stated if a man died before he and his wife could produce a child, then his brother had an obligation to marry the widow. The Sadducees paint a wild scenario: a woman gets married and her husband dies before they have a child. So she married his brother, but he also dies without producing an heir. This goes on through seven brothers, all of whom die before they have a child. Finally the woman dies.... probably from exhaustion and the Sadducees want to know whose wife she will be in the resurrection.

It's amazing that Jesus even took this seriously, but He actually gave them a very thoughtful answer. First, he corrected their theology. The Sadducees assumed that if there were an afterlife, it would be an extension of this life. So, if you were married on earth then you would be married in heaven, and if you had kids on earth you would have kids in heaven. Jesus said it doesn't work that way.... and delivers the agenda killer... by saying there is “no marriage in heaven.”

Jesus also corrected their understanding of the Bible passages they referenced. In verses 37-40, Jesus refers back to Moses' interaction with God in the burning bush. He uses very simple logic: God's statement to Moses was in the present tense: "I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." That doesn't make any sense if they're not alive. If someone comes to you and says, "I was your father’s best friend," that may be because your father is dead or somehow their relationship has changed. But if he comes to you and says, "I am your father’s best friend," the assumption is that he's still alive and their relationship is still dynamic. That's why Jesus says, "He is not the God of the dead but of the living." Again, Jesus puts an end to an agenda, an attempt to discredit who He was.

What cause are you trying to get Jesus to endorse? Christians get caught up in many agendas and causes that have nothing to do with God’s purpose or Kingdom building. Such activities, ideas, causes and schemes serve to deflect our time, energy and very often our resources away from the things God would have us focused on.

How does Jesus respond? Thankfully, just as gently as He did with his enemies in the first century. He loves us enough to engage with us, but he won't sign on to any of our schemes, plans, ideas or agendas. He has an agenda of His own that is moving forward to its ultimate conclusion and He wants us to sign on to His program.

Our concept of what He's doing is so small and limiting. Our view of his Kingdom is at best a human remake of life on earth. It might be a political remake; that’s why many Christians put so much faith and confidence in the continuation of this world and its political systems. Surely God is going to fix all this. No... He is not going to do that. This world and all of its ways are passing away.

Maybe you fall into the group that seeks a theological remake of God’s plan. You might feel that the Bible is a bit outdated and should be interpreted more liberally to accommodate today’s social and cultural standards. No. What God said 2,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago, what He has been saying from the beginning of His interactions with humanity still stands today... without change or dilution. God doesn’t change His standards... nor can we.

God wants us to be part of something that transcends our own agenda and ideas of how we think He should be doing His work on earth today. We want wiggle room. We want to negotiate compromises and allowances for humanistic philosophies. He wants obedience, commitment, loyalty, integrity, humility and love among brothers who have claimed salvation in Christ.

He wants us to embrace with passion a Kingdom without end, created not through political power, or theological compromise, but through the cross and the power of His resurrection. It’s is His cross and that cross is our bridge to eternity. He invites us to pick it up, bear it, and follow Him on His terms... not ours.

Sorry... “I” don’t do parking spaces.

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We live each day of our lives in the midst of profoundly amazing creation. A world created by a loving God. At the desire of his heart He said... "Let there be light!" and there it was. Fill the oceans with life... and they were filled. Land, sea and air creatures came into existance at His command. His crowning creation... “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Genesis 1:26

God also said... "I will send a flood," He did and the whole earth was flooded. He parted the Red Sea and knocked down the walls of Jericho. He sent His beloved Son to earth to live among us as a man... He empowered His miracles and resurrected Him from the dead. God is at work all the time, in all of His creation. He attends to detail. He is aware of everything, every action, every word, every hair on our head is known to Him. To God nothing is insignificant. We live in the constant shadow of a powerful God!

Even with all His power... don’t expect God to be hustling parking spaces for you at the local mall or grocery store so you can park closer to the entrance. I know, you’re probably wondering what does “parking spaces” have to do with an Omnipotent God.

Many people in the course of their daily activities actually pray to God to grant such things... parking spaces, good deals, no traffic, and all manner of self-soothing requests. A view common among Christians is this: if God is all-powerful, then He will surely assist me in my requests for such things. Does it not say... "All things work together for good to those who love God." (Romans 8:28 KJV) So we reason... “all things”.... “I love God”... therefore I can expect that everything will work out for good and God will be working overtime to make “me” happy.

A more accurate understanding of Paul’s message comes from the New International Version rendering of Romans 8: 28 (NIV)... "In all things, God works for good for those who love him." God’s promise is not that "all things work for good," but that in the midst of “all situations”, God is at work. Still, what about God’s attention to my needs and requests? The Bible teaches us that He is involved... attentive... responsive... so how is God working in my life?

Here’s the problem... Christians are susceptible to two mistaken viewpoints of God.... one... God is a puppet, able to be manipulated by humans to our our ends, and two...God is a puppeteer, constantly pulling the strings of humanity causing all sorts of situations and outcomes.

Those who see God as a puppet believe God can do anything, anything we tell him to do. This beieve is anchored by a strong belief in prayer, and puts all the power in the hands of the one praying. Scripture tells us to never stop praying. Pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, for daily needs, for spiritual maturity, for forgiveness, for deliverance from temptation, for our Christian brothers and sisters, for our enemies. Never are we to put ourselves in the position of demanding of God the exact nature of His answer. Those who see God as a puppet expect God to act at their whim, especially in the most prevelant of prayer requests... daily needs. “God... please, please, I need a parking space close to the entrance because I’m in a hurry.”

Humans cannot order God around. Think about it like this... whenever we pray for selfish things, God is treated like a puppet. We might not think our requests are selfish. We may even comfortably rationalize that our requests are aligned with God’s Word. But if our prayers become “request-response” oriented then we are thinking of God as our servant... expecting Him to grant our every wish and whim.

Then there’s the puppeteer God. This view of God can seriously undermind our relationship with Him. Many Christians see God as if He is a master puppeteer, pulling all the strings in every situation of our lives no matter how small or insignificant. This view of God suggests that every life event or experience is the result of the direct will of God. He made it happen. God brought the storm... the tornado... the tsunami... massive loss of life. He caused the cancer... the heart attack... the car crash... sudden death. You hear it expressed in these simple words... “it’s was God’s will.”

ALL things that happen to all of humanity, good or bad, are credited to the direct will of God. No event is too small, no desire of the heart too selfish... ALL are controlled and manipulated by God’s direct will. When you can’t explain it, or accept it for what it really is... then assign it to the will of God.

Believing God is a master puppeteer is surprisingly similar to personal human will. It’s a safe-haven, a comfortable position for many, because it frees you of responsibility for your own decisions and grants self-righteousness to those who seem to be blessed.... those who for the moment seem to be dodging the calamities of life.

Christians don’t come to this belief entirely on there own. They have lots of help... from pulpits around the world where Christians hear that God wants them to be healthy and wealthy and their experience of such conditions will show God’s work and blessing in their lives. The insensitivity and distortion that spews forth from so-called Christian preachers faning the “prosperity gospel” is foreign to both Scripture and life experience. So the question lingers....

If God is neither our servant puppet or a manipulating master puppeteer, then who is He and what is He doing in our lives?

First we need to accept a hard but core fact of our relationship with God... He never promised an easy life in which we always get our way. He never promised freedom from tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, death, deception or rebellion. He only promised that in the midst of every situation, no matter how bad or how painful, God will be present, working for the good for those who love him. An even harder fact to accept.... the results of His work for us may not be seen or experienced in this world or in this life.

If God manipulated all things like a master puppeteer, we would have no free will, and those who are not already faithful would have no hope. If God acted in subservient response to our every wish, like a great puppet, our world would be subject to human macinations and not the perfect will and power of God.

God has chosen to exercise his power in ways that have eternal significance. God exerts his power within the boundaries of His divine nature. God’s love, forgiveness, incarnation, atonement, and the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit are actions of his power that can change the attitudes of those who seek to know and comprehend His character and attributes.

Where is God when your life really stinks? He is not going to equip you with tools to take revenge on your enemy or embolden an attitude to seek retribution on that which causes you pain. In your most difficult moments, He is not running roughshod over you, nor is He doing stunts to show off his power. Rather, as the Holy Spirit He actively works inside you and in the lives of the people you love, providing the necessary resources to cope, endure, thrive, and achieve victory over that which causes you pain. He is there... helping you cope with unfair and difficult life situations. He seeks to shape your attitudes so you can accept things as they are and grow in Him.

When things are not going well in our lives... Christians will pray for relief. Relief doesn’t come. We get frustrated. God’s timing is rarely our preferred timing. God’s goal for each one of us is to make us more like Christ. He will always use our circumstances, especially those of pain and suffering, to draw us closer to that ultimate goal. If we can remember that when life experience is not pleasant, then we can be confident that the Omnipotent God will exercise his power to grant ultimate victory to those who remain faithful to Him.

By God’s powerful grace, He is constantly at work in us and for us. Never doubt it... trust Him.

Is GOD listening to me?

Does He even care about me? Why doesn’t God grant my prayer requests? You may feel that God has never granted anything you have ever prayed for!

Job struggled with this issue. God’s silence led him to ask in frustration, Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him? (Job 21:15). Left unanswered, such questions can raise serious doubts in the minds of believers and can even become the catalyst for unbelief... giving up on God altogether.

When life is filled with pain and sorrow we turn to God for relief. You don’t have to be a devout Christian to know this happens. When humans can’t fix a problem, we turn to God. It’s human nature to want relief from discomfort. When our prayer requests don’t work out as we want them to... God gets blamed for human suffering, sorrow and pain. He gets blamed for not intervening and stopping the circumstances and situations that cause pain and suffering.

However it’s important to remember, God does not intentionally inflict pain and suffering on humanity. There is a significant difference between “causing human suffering” and “permitting it to continue” for a purpose. Many situations, in fact most things that happen to us can and will have a beneficial result if we persevere through the experience. Therein is the challenge... persevering. This is hard to accept when you’re the one in the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, God will not allow us to be crushed, bearing more than we can handle. He knows our limits.... but he also knows the strength of our hearts and our capacity to handle situations. He knows what we need to experience to grow in Him and prosper in our faith.

But didn’t Jesus make several promises that in fact say that God will answer our prayers.... for whatever we ask?

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7 NAS

"And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." Matthew 21:22 NAS

"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you." Mark 11:24 NAS

These are indeed the words of Jesus. They sound as if He will grant our every request. We need to carefully study the promises Jesus made in order to understand what he really promised.

First, we might want to change our perspective on the often used term of “unanswered prayer”. It wrongly suggests that God is either unable or unwilling to respond to our prayers when He may very well answer in ways we do not recognize. God hears the prayers of the faithful and obedient. We think unanswered or ungranted, when the suffering continues. In fact we don’t always understand nor do we comprehend God’s answer to our requests.

What was Jesus talking about when He made these promises? Context is critical. Whenever we study the Scriptures, we need to be careful not to extract specific verses and treat them independent of their context. Context controls meaning. Each promise in the Bible should be read within the framework of the teaching, the principles and the statements surrounding it. To whom was the promise given? Does the context limit or qualify the meaning? What does the rest of Scripture teach on the topic?

Examining the Prayer Promises of Jesus
The aforementioned verses were in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, where a broad array of teachings and principles are given. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8). Sounds like an unqualified open-ended promise doesn’t it? Until you examine the context.

In the context, we see an emphasis on spiritual growth. Therefore, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, asking for spiritual help and growth, then God will grant our requests, including giving us the Holy Spirit to help us (Luke 11:13).

Jesus did not mean he would grant our every desire and wish, giving us exactly what we request. However, when we ask for the kinds of things mentioned in the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer, he promises to answer. He does add an important required ingredient that factors into our prayer.

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matthew 21:22). “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). After withering the fig tree, Jesus says if the apostles have faith they could cast a mountain into the sea (Matthew 21:21). We have no record in the Bible of Jesus or anyone else moving a physical mountain into the sea. Even in ancient times, “moving mountains”... was a figure of speech for doing something extremely difficult or seemingly impossible. We still use that expression today.

Jesus explained to the apostles that just as they needed faith to work miracles, prayer required faith on the part of the one who prays. He is not talking about a mere affirmation of belief. He means a relationship of genuine trust in God characterized by living in submissive obedience to God’s Word and His will. Jesus does not mean we can manipulate God or use prayer like a magic wand, but that prayers offered in trustful submission to an all-powerful God can overcome what seems to be the impossible.

Jesus made several promises during his ministry. Some of these promises were limited to the apostles and their work in the first century. The apostles filled an unrepeatable role as Jesus’ representatives in establishing His church. Certainly not all promises Jesus gave to His apostles can be claimed by Christians today. God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah to give them a child in their old age does not mean senior citizens today should claim that promise for themselves.

Even when Jesus was speaking to the apostles, in some cases the context of His teaching makes it clear that the promise has a broader application to all believers in general. Whether these promises about prayer apply primarily to the apostles or to us as Christians in general, such prayers are subject to the qualifications Jesus established. Rather than reading these as unqualified promises, attention must be given to the “condition of our lives” that empower God to respond to our prayers.

Jesus stated, “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you” ( John 15:7). Abiding in Christ means surrendering to Christ’s spirit and will and living in obedience to His Words and with all that Christ stands for. Far from assuring us that our every wish will be granted, being totally committed to Christ means we will desire that His will be done in our lives. Our prayers will be in agreement with God’s will because we share the mind of Christ.

God answers our requests according to His will. As we grow in Christ’s likeness by keeping His commandments, our wills become more aligned with His will. God does not answer our prayers because we have a clear conscience, but because such a good conscience shows that we are keeping His commands and doing what pleases Him.

Scripture stresses that God hears the prayers of the righteous. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16; cf. Proverbs 15:29; Psalm 66:18; Job 27:8; Isaiah 1:11-15). Because of our relationship with Christ, we can pray with a confident boldness knowing our Father hears and will answer according to His will and purpose.

In times of pain and sorrow we have to TRUST God. Frankly, we have no other option. We have to understand what it means for God to answer our prayers and how He might answer... which sometimes feels like no answer at all.

While this statement seems harsh and unloving... we are going to have to accept that the “answer” to many of our prayers may be continued pain, suffering and sorrow. God never wastes His children's pain. We should take a measure of comfort in knowing that God uses the sorrow and pain of our lives to inch us ever closer to Him. To being transformed into a Christlike new creation.

It's a difficult truth to accept when we’re the ones who have to suffer to achieve this closeness to God. But it is the way God uses the difficult periods of our lives to grow us in Christ. He does not make our pain, that is a consequence of the fallen world and the Curse we live under. He does not manipulate us like puppets into situations of suffering and pain, but He will use these circumstances to shape and hone us in our trust and faith in Him, if... we let Him.

Trust God. Continue to pray and allow Him to transform you... what other choice do you have?

Coming to terms with Suffering, Sorrow and Evil

Why does God allow innocent people to suffer? Have you ever thought about that question? Does it nag at your rational mind? If God is so good, then why doesn’t he restrain evil and suffering? Why does suffering exist at all? Why doesn’t He explain his reason for allowing so much pain and suffering? Why do I a believer, a Christian, feel such awful pain in my life?

This is one of the most difficult questions for Christians to answer and maybe the single greatest dilemma of faith today.

The “problem of pain,” as the well-known Christian scholar, C.S. Lewis, once called it, is atheism's most potent weapon against the Christian faith. All true science and history, if rightly understood, support the existence of God. The evidence is so strong in fact that, as the Bible says: "The fool says in his heart, There is no God." (Psalm 14:1).

Every one of us will experience suffering at some time in our lives. Many of us are experiencing it in what feels like unfair doses that seem to never let up. And in very recent years we have seen unimaginable natural disasters and genocide's that challenge our ability to comprehend the existence of God. Evil and suffering are real in our world... present and personal to each one of us.

In such difficult times of human suffering and unbridled evil... questions about God take center stage in our thinking. What is He doing? From the human vantage point... nothing. How can a God of love permit such things in His world as war, sickness, pain, and untimely death, especially when their effects often are felt most keenly by those who are innocent? Why would an all-good and all-powerful God allow the world to be overwhelmed by such evil and suffering? Either He is not a God of love and is indifferent to human suffering, or else He is not a God of power and is therefore helpless to do anything about it. In either case, the Biblical God who is supposedly one of both absolute power and perfect love becomes an impossible contradiction. If suffering is up close and personal for you... then you are likely to question whether God really cares about humanity or even exists.

These are ageless questions that have plagued mankind from ancient times. Evil and the suffering of humanity breeds unbelief. High-profile atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and even former believers like Bart Ehrman, a prominent theologian, answer these questions simply: The existence of suffering and evil proves there is no God.

Christians know that is not the case... God does exist! BUT do we really trust and understand the matrix of God’s existence and His relationship with humanity? Christians are just as susceptible to being overtaken by disbelief in God’s existence as any true-blue atheist.

This next sentence or two will quite possibly touch a nerve.... we need to recognize that our very minds were created by God. In our current state of sin and imperfection we can only use our minds to the extent that He allows, and it is, therefore, utterly presumptuous for us to use them to question Him and His motives... even in the matters of suffering and evil. We humans do not establish the standards of what is right or wrong, even when we think we understand the will of God. Only the Creator of all reality can do that. We need to settle it, in our minds and hearts, whether we understand it or not, that whatever God does... is by definition, right, just, righteous and most of all... loving. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25).

Okay... we are limited in our understanding of God. But that doesn’t do much to answer these nagging questions of why God is not helping a young person suffering from depression and anxiety... thinking life isn’t worth living, because God is not helping ease the pain. Or a woman with small children suddenly stricken with cancer that will soon take her life and leave her children motherless. Or the family who just lost a loved one in a tragic accident. When it’s personal... especially when we are “believers”... we want God to intervene and to make things well... to cure the sick... to shield us from pain and suffering. Why doesn’t He intervene?

The answer to all of this isn’t easy to swallow when it’s YOU suffering. It may well be that in our walk as Christians, we simply glossed over the harsh realities of the human condition that are clearly explained in the Bible. We tend to fill our minds with only the good things of God’s promises. Maybe we’re too emotionally driven... believing that a “person in Christ” should be somehow exempt from suffering... that God should be a our beck and call to soothe our pain and sorrows.

Coming to terms with suffering and sorrow is sort of like preparing your final burial arrangements and writing your obituary when you’re young and healthy. No want wants to face the reality of such circumstances, whether it’s suffering through personal pain, tragedies or life’s end.

Man was disobedient to God as recorded in Genesis 3:6-7. Disobedience to God is sin. God... rightfully and justly reacted to the situation. The world is now existing under a Curse (Genesis 3:17) because of man's rebellion against God's Plan for humanity. It came with consequences... evil, suffering and sorrow. God reveals to Adam and Eve the consequences of their sinful choice in Genesis 3:16-19. God told Adam and Eve that they would now experience SORROW and DEATH. Therefore, the suffering and sorrow that you and I deal with today is not the work of an unjust or uncaring God... it's the consequences of sin. It’s a just and righteous Curse that has plagued all of humanity since the beginning (Romans 3:23; 5:12).

This “bondage of sin and corruption,” with the "whole world groaning and suffering together in pain" (Romans 8:21, 22), is universal, affecting all men, women and children everywhere. Don’t for a minute think that God finds any pleasure in the pain and suffering of humanity. He does not. God did not create the world this way, and one day He will set all things right again. In that day, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain" (Revelation 21:4).

How to cope? Live everyday of your life focused on Jesus. Who He is and what He did. Christ died for our sins (I Corinthians 15:3). He suffered and died, in order that ultimately He might deliver the world from the Curse, and that, even now, He can deliver from sin and its bondage anyone who will receive Him in faith as their personal Lord and Savior. This great deliverance from the penalty of inherent sin, while the most significant event in all history, still doesn’t relieve one from personal suffering and sorrow... now.

One thing can... Faith. Full faith in God's goodness and in Christ's redemption can help us recognize that our present sufferings can be turned to His glory and our ultimate good. The sufferings of Christians should always be looked upon as the means of developing a stronger dependence on God and a more Christ-like character. As we are admonished and warned... No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. (Hebrews 12:11 NLT).

God is loving and merciful even when, “for the present,” He allows trials and sufferings to come in our lives. “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Pain and suffering doesn’t feel like a good thing under any circumstances. Living through such ordeals seems a contradiction that any human suffering can produce something good when it’s causing people so much pain. We can find ourselves caught in a faith vortex, spinning out of control... teetering between belief and unbelief. “When I became a Christian, I thought God would care for me, protect me, and shield me from pain and suffering... but He does nothing.” “I don’t think He cares about me... I don’t think HE even exists.’”

Faith builds Trust.... Trust yields Faith. The foundations of “belief” must be firmly anchored in a balanced understanding of who God really is... not who we want Him to be! He’s not waiting on us like a personal servant who waves a wand and solves our problems when we call out to Him. Nor is He the master puppeteer, pulling our strings, maneuvering and manipulating individual people into circumstances and situations that cause suffering and sorrow. Moment to moment throughout our lives we make choices and those choices have consequences... good, bad and unintended.

This world, in its present condition was never intended to be God’s final answer for humanity. The suffering that God allows is small when compared to the eternal joy that awaits faithful Christians. The apostle Paul said it very well.... “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).