July 23 - Hope in the face of hardship
Scripture focus: You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we're in-- first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it. Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man's sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God's gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There's no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right. All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. Romans 5:12-21 (The Message)
In the next few devotionals, we're going to talk about some very difficult subjects. These are designed to help us see the truth of our current situation with regards to sin. But before we go to this dark place, let us not forget that all sin can do is threaten us. Grace invites us into life.
The bottom line is this: at some point those of us who are suffering must make a decision about whether or not we are going to choose life. So I ask you -- on this day, what do you choose? To be defined by your hardships, or by the hope that Jesus did it right and got us out of a world of hurt?
Recommended reading: 1 Samuel 10-12
6 comments:
a nanny mouse here. a friend e-mailed me this morning and said that pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. i responded saying pain is part of life, but suffering only becomes optional when we are no longer alone. being alone does not mean not being in love, or not being married, or not being a parent, or having no friends. being at north star is the first time in my life i have not been alone. i still grieve the scorched earth and devastation i have left in my wake. however my hope is no longer being deferred, as hope deferred makes the heart sick. i am healing, and for the most part i am no longer inflicting pain on others. i cling to this hope today that he will make all things right if i surrender to his will. do i sometimes have nagging doubts? yes. there are times when i feel lost at sea, like i'm only being held up by a life jacket and nothing appears to be out there for as far as the eye can see in any direction in a vast ocean. i need to remind myself frequently to let today's troubles be sufficient. i do not yet know what tomorrow will bring.
I find that in my recovery pain comes and so does suffering.For me the optional part of suffering is how I choose to suffer. I have come to believe that the more I trust the better I will suffer, not will not suffer but suffer with the promise of grace. God Bless
I believe suffering is a tool that the KING can work with molding us into HIS kids. Could suffering be realted to the degree we resist HIS ways, you know, our self will? Purposeful suffering vrs. cyclical suffering.
I am curious about the wages of sin vrs. grace. Any thoughts?
Peace Yall
I think of the "wages of sin is death" as a boundary law. It's not so much that God is punishing us when we don't do what pleases him so much as it is that God is telling us the wy it is - we reap what we sow. I personally don't think suffering is always linked to God trying to get me in line. I have found that sometimes the tougheest suffering is the unexplainable suffering - when you don't have any way to understand it as a consequence of my sin or any one else's for that matter. that's led me to believe that although sometimes suffering is a reaping and sowing, wages of sin issue, lots of times it's just the way it is - suffering happens. And how i respond to it is more a reflection of how I trust God than the other way around - i suffer when I don't trust God - I don't find that premise to be true all the time for me. I think sometimes I'm like a little kid, thinking it's all bout me, and if I suffer, it must be about me. but when I pause to prepare, I think differently. It may be about me or it may have othing to do with me. It maybe a fluke or a mystery. But how I respond...that's about me choosing to trust.
Well put and well thought out. Thank you for your thoughts.
maybe suffering is the mortar between the bricks, the thing that holds us all together as a community. when my actions cause another to suffer, i am given the space, by grace, to experience and acknowledge my failure, to open up and receive love from the one i have wounded by confessing and asking forgiveness for wrong done. by the same token when i am the one wounded, i have the opportunity to love in return, and in so doing i discover the christ in myself and in others.
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