The Lord is not slow in keeping His promises as we know it. He is faithful and true to finish a good work in which HE started. He disciplines His sons and daughters so do not despise it, but rejoice in the fact that you are His. He is close to the broken hearted and is the protector of the poor. Yet somehow life seems to suggest that all of this is quite the opposite. I’ve grown close to boys living on the street in the Dominican who have been on their own as long as they pretty much remember. I’ve loved orphans in Haiti that have been trauma written all over their faces and have been captured and set free from voodoo doctors. In Cambodia I meandered through a pile of burning trash that no one ought to smell let alone live in. In Thailand I was blessed mightily by Karen (Burmese) refugees who were pretty shaken up about the possibility of going close to the border. Vietnam held victims of agent orange from the “American War” that were all shades of deformed…and I’m sure you have at least an idea of the amount of orphans and aids here in Africa. What is going on? Where is this God that protects those going through chaos of the worst kinds?
When Joseph was a child, God gave him a couple dreams. Obviously as the story goes, his brothers weren’t quite happy about the dreams and sold him off into slavery. Joseph had a little bit of reason to feel betrayed by his family and by God but it doesn’t quite appear as though he gave up hope. He found himself gaining favor because of his integrity and the Lord’s favor. Soon after he got thrown into jail for doing the right thing with Potiphar’s wife. Even here he grew in favor and stature among the guards. He interpreted dreams that ought to have got himself out but was once again forgotten. Eventually after years of disappointment, frustration and unjust situations God again raised him to second in command of all Egypt. His response to his brothers? What you meant for harm, God meant for good…
David was the least of his brothers and a little shepherd boy. God commanded Samuel to go and anoint one of Jesse’s boys to someday become the king. Everyone thought it would be one of David’s older brothers because of their stature and age and appearance but God kept going past them all. Instead He chose David and said that He looks at the heart and not the outward appearance. Yet, David remained a shepherd in the silence of cold nights and stupid sheep. Meanwhile he grew to kill lions and bears and eventually a giant that every other “fierce” warrior was afraid to stand up to him. Saul tried to kill him when David was a musician for him and pursued him when he was jealous. The more he grew in stature and favor the hotter the pursuit for his life became. He spent days and nights on the run for his life in cold caves, hot desert and amongst warring people. Eventually God lifted Him up to the throne and called him a man after His own heart.
Abraham was told that God would bless all nations through him. He was still old and without child and when he finally had the child of the promise, God said “hey, go sacrifice him.” The boy was old enough to know what was needed for a sacrifice and old enough to hike a couple days up a mountain to do so. Abraham went so far as to prepare the fire, tie up his son and lift his own knife to strike his son…Thankfully God spared the child and provided a powerful foreshadowing of what Jesus was to do on the cross for us all…regardless I can’t imagine being in Abraham’s spot…however this all was accredited to him as faith.
I could go on and on with stories from the bible where God gave a promise and then everything seemed to go the exact opposite of what was promised for years if not decades. David and Joseph were prepped with loneliness, hardship and discouragements that piled up unfairly for one “chosen” to carry the mark of God. Why would God do such a thing? I bet Brennan Manning would suggest that it would have a lot to do with trust. Trusting is the tangible expression of hope and faith put together as he would say.
These men went through discouragements I can’t quite imagine and the only thing they had left after everything seemed to be taken away was the hope that God was true and faithful to His word and the trust that He could do what He said He would even though everything looked beyond grim. Yet somehow there are those like the three in the fiery furnace who without wavering said that God would save them and even if He didn’t, they’d rather die than bow down.
God has made us on purpose and He doesn’t make mistakes. He knows what we can handle and what it will take to get the purity inside of us to the surface. He knows our hearts better than we do and often times it’s the hardest of things that we go through that mold us into the most accurate representation of who He has created us to be. Sometimes we have to go through the fire to burn off all the crap. These men (and there are plenty of women as well) of the bible were only given the promise of a hope that was better than all they could ever ask or imagine and then they had to wait…but once through they were never the same and He could use them in mighty ways.
I’ve seen enough of life to know that I’ve been blessed in absurd amounts thus far in my life and the struggles and disappointments I have known pale in comparison to those of so many around the world. However, I can also tell you that the things people have gone through in all of history pale in comparison to what is coming…and quite possibly coming soon. This year I have spent considerable time looking into what the bible says about the end times and some of it isn’t pretty if you are looking through the eyes of man. However, the greatest love story is about to be fully unleashed in ways we can’t even imagine even though we are told about it. This however is a topic all in itself and maybe I will spend some time writing about it all for you but I just wanted to encourage you that if you are going through rough times or when you do in the future, persevere.
James 1:12 says that blessed is the man who perseveres under trial for when he stood the test he will receive a crown of righteousness…and another place in the bible says to endure hardships knowing that brothers around the world are also going through much of the same. Hope sometimes is only a whisper that somehow sticks stronger than our greatest desires and expectations and in it we may find a refuge through the storm…The bible says that hope does not disappoint…
All I know is that the more you lose your expectations and your desires the more free you tend to feel to walk with confidence and grace. God humbles and then lifts the countenance of those who are laid low.
