Real Suffering in a Real Life of Faith - Light in the Darkness – Purity 727

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Let's see, today's photo of Twilight from the vantage point of the parking lot outside of Regal Theaters in Clifton Park, New York comes to us from yours truly as I stopped to capture this scene on the way into the movies with my family on Saturday night. When I took this photo, a part of me wanted to focus on the horizon to just capture the contrast of pink and purple of the night sky because the foreground wasn't exactly breathtaking. But in the moment, I decided to just take it as it was. Even though I love this, the sky I captured, I had some serious doubts whether I would ever share this photo because let's face it, It was just a photo from a parking lot after all. But this morning I am suffering from a strain in my left calf that didn't quite work itself out with this morning's workout, and my morning Bible study included Psalm 88, which deals with suffering and doesn't conclude with a happy ending. And I thought that this photo portrayed the idea of beauty in the mundane and suffering in the real life of faith that I am being moved to share on this Tuesday morning. Heck, even to— even the day, as it is only the second day of the work week, points to the need to be faithful even when it might not seem we might have much to be happy about. Yep, uh, life comes with suffering, from aches and pains and other medical concerns to hunger to financial difficulties and all the way to traumatic losses. Sometimes life is a regular provider of lemons. Which could cause us to reply, "What's so good about it?" when someone innocently wishes us to have a nice day. Unfortunately, there can sometimes be an overemphasis on making lemonade out of lemons in the church, as there is a tendency to encourage one another to put on a happy face. That can cause irritation or make those who are suffering to feel they, they don't belong at the Sunday service. There is a false perception of the church that the enemy pushes that makes us, makes those who are struggling or hurting feel they are not welcome. In churches that believe in and pray for miraculous healings, it may seem that our faith has failed us, or we don't belong in the midst of such hope when sickness, disease, and pain are part of our daily experience. In church circles where Word of Faith theology is subtly or not so subtly practiced, the The hurting are encouraged to ignore or deny their pains as they are prompted to believe for their healing and actually told to— told not to pray, "If it is your will, Lord," which actually flies in the face of what Jesus himself prayed in Matthew 6:10 when he said, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And even in what appeared to be Jesus' most desperate moment in the Garden of Gethsemane Luke 22:42, Jesus said, Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. I know when I suffered a personal tragedy in the loss of my infant son, my nominal faith wasn't enough to keep me in the church, as I thought that God had broken, quote unquote, the deal, where I thought that because I went to church once a week, my continual sins would be continually forgiven and overlooked, and my family and I would be insulated from pain and suffering. I had a wrong view of what our faith is. I mean, really, Christ being persecuted, suffering, and dying on the cross should clue us all in to the reality of suffering as part of our lives, even when we are Christians. Christ even told us we would suffer because of our faith in Matthew 5:44-45, where he said, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. I don't know about you, but a part of me thought that being a Christian was the right thing to do, and the idea that people would hate us for it, and that rain would fall on the just in equal measure to that that it would fall on the unjust, just doesn't seem fair. But the fact of suffering in our lives, instead of being denied or ignored, actually holds the key to our hope and, and the key to our overcoming the world with Christ, with Christ. As the Apostle Paul, referring to the thorn in his flesh that Christ— that the Lord didn't heal him of— told us in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, where he said, and he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. The strength and power of our faith comes in the acknowledgement of our suffering and in our still proclaiming the goodness of God because we know, as Paul said in Romans 8:18, 2 Corinthians 4:18, 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. Our suffering is real. God doesn't always heal us. Unless Christ comes back before our bodies fail us, we will all die in the flesh. It's okay to acknowledge the pain we have, the struggles we are going through, and to keep it real. But after we weep, to make the pain manageable, we should remember who we are in Christ, and how our Lord and Savior himself and all the saints throughout history have suffered too. Ours is not a Pollyanna faith. We should recognize the suffering we go through and allow it to make us grow closer to the Lord, who will strengthen and mature our faith even when our bodies are weak. The days of our walk of faith won't always be filled with sunshine and rainbows, but when we remember Christ's sufferings and his glorious resurrection and ascension into heaven, we should connect to the fact that death has lost its sting and that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. When we internalize our identity in Christ and commune in the Lord's presence, we don't have to fake it. We don't have to put on a happy face because the joy of the Lord is our strength, and we can overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony that confesses that we were once blind but now see, and that we were— we are— we, when we are weak, while we are weak, we are strong, and that while we are dead— we were dead in our trespasses and sins, we have been forgiven and been given a new and everlasting life in Christ. So grin and bear it, or bear it and grin. But don't let, let, let your smile be surface deep, an outward expression of to hide your pain. Let your smile come from inside, from the joy that the Lord, the Holy Spirit produces in your life when you decide to keep walking and talking with God even when it hurts. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Psalm 106:2, which says, "Who can list the glorious miracles of the Lord? Who can ever praise him enough?" Today's Bible verse rejoices over the multitude of miracles that the Lord has done and indicates that we can never quite praise the Lord enough. The Holy Scriptures are filled with the miraculous moves of God, both in the Old and New Testament. People knew that the Lord was with the, was with the patriarchs, the nation of Israel, the prophets, and with Jesus and the apostles because of the accompanying signs and wonders that happened when they sought to do the Lord's will on earth. The miracles that happened all had one thing in common. They all pointed to the existence of and the present reality of God. And so we know that what the people in the Bible told us about God is true. The Lord backed up what they said with miracles and divine providence. As Nicodemus said to Jesus in John 3:2, "We know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." The miracles tell us we can be assured that Christ was the Messiah, but as today's verse indicates, they also tell us that we should praise the Lord and that we can never praise Him enough. So praise the Lord in song, in prayer, but don't forget that the greatest praise we can give the Lord is to repent and to surrender our lives to His will. The Lord has done so many miraculous things, and when we decide to follow Him in spirit and truth, we become another miraculous sign of His coming that we ourselves can rejoice in. And praise him for. As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, and today's sections include headings that say Not Christians Because They Do Not Want to Give and The Dilemma Where We No Longer Hang. And we cannot make anyone glad in God. So if you want to check out what John Piper was saying under those— underneath those headings, go to mtforchrist.org to check out that resource at the end of today's blog post. Well, today is Tuesday and we got work to do, and then we're gonna go to— well, me personally, I'm gonna go to a class about noetic counseling. That's biblical counseling. So my day is full with activity, but you know what? My heart is full with the joy of the Lord. So even though things might, you know, got things to do and it can be hurried or, you know, harried at times in terms of keeping up with everything, I wouldn't have it any other way because this is the path that the Lord has put me on and the one he accompanies me on. And that's why we try to encourage other people to walk in the Spirit, to follow the Lord's will for their lives. And we do that by sharing our teachings that we've done, uh, from 2021, uh, on the podcast and our YouTube channel. Um, they— the teachings, of course, were for the Victory Over the Darkness, the Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. And they're all available on the podcast and the YouTube channel. And those teachings are all based on the word of God and the work of Dr. Neil Anderson. Who teaches that we are free in Christ. He just agrees with the Word, of course. But it's nice to have the wisdom of the Word put into easily digestible teachings, and that's why we— that's why we blog, that's why we podcast, and that's why we share the teachings of Christian counselors and theologians, because we really need to apply our faith. You know, just believing is great, but, you know, having the power of our faith to help us overcome the sufferings of this world is what our faith is all about. You know, we don't have to fake it. And when we're living authentic Christian lives, we can have joy, joy even in the midst of our sufferings. We can have peace regardless of our circumstances. That's all, you know, it all comes from the Lord and it comes through, you know, walking with Him. So we encourage you in your walk today. We also encourage you to— how do we get connected to this truth? Well, you read the Bible. It's filled with the truth. You want to read about His miracles? They're in there. You want to read about God's truth and His teachings? They're in there. But you have to read it. And so we encourage that. We read the Bible every day and we, um, we study it with our good friends Arthur and Susanna Sincotti on Sundays, and we share our Bible study. All the Bible studies that we've done thus far are on the podcast, and we are uploading the video sessions of our, of our, our Zoom meetings currently, and the latest one from back in January um, is going to be released tomorrow on our YouTube channel, and that study is on repentance. So if you want to know what repentance is or what we said about repentance, um, during that study back in January, it'll be released on YouTube tomorrow. Um, so that's all the plugging for today. Let's, let's, let's go to the Lord in prayer and, uh, see if he can help us through the second day of the work week. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you to help us in our desperate moments of suffering, and, um, that we can have peace and we can have joy even when things hurt and even when things aren't going like we had hoped. Lord, even the midst of our struggles, we know that you're there. We know that you can help us. And you can help us to be strong and to overcome and to just endure or persevere until, you know, we, we get out of that valley of the shadow of death. And we, we understand that we are dwelling in the house of the Lord right now, uh, in your presence. Lord, we pray for everyone listening today, Lord, that you would anoint them with the Holy Spirit as they go about their day, to open their eyes to the beautiful things that surround them. And of course the things they need to see and do, um, you know, proactively and pragmatically in their lives, and to represent you as they walk through this world. Lord, we thank you for the hope that we have in you and the hope that we have in each other, that we can encourage one another as we walk through this world, and and, and rejoice that we are all together because of you. Even if we're distant from one another throughout the world, we all know we are Heavenly Father, and we all know that you're, you're for us and you're guiding us to what you want us to do and what you want us to know. So Lord, we thank you, we praise you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.