Suffering Is Never For Nothing: 7-Day DevotionalSample

Day 4

“The Lord God will help me; therefore I have not been humiliated; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:7 CSB

Acceptance, I believe, is the key to peace in this business of suffering. As I’ve said, the crux of the whole matter is the cross of Jesus Christ. And that word crux means cross. It is the best thing that ever happened in human history as well as the worst thing. Here in His love, the Scripture tells us. Not that we loved God here in His love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and gave Himself, no, here in His love that Christ laid down His life for us.

When we speak of love as the Bible speaks of love, we’re not talking about a silly sentiment. We’re not talking about a mood or a feeling or warm fuzzies. The love of God is not a sentiment. It is a willed and inexorable love that will command nothing less than the very best for us. The love of God wills our joy. I think of the love of God as being synonymous with the  will of God.

Young people sometimes say to me this whole business of the will of God is just so scary. I don’t see how you can ever just turn over your whole life to God without knowing what He’s going to do. Well, that’s what faith is about, isn’t it? If you really believe that somebody loves you then you trust them.

The will of God is love. And love suffers. That’s how we know what the love of God for us is, because He was willing to become a man and to take upon Himself our sins, our griefs, our sufferings.

We’re not adrift in chaos. We’re held in the everlasting arms. And therefore, and this makes a difference, we can be at peace and we can accept. We can say yes, Lord, I’ll take it. The faculty by which I apprehend God is the faculty of faith. And my faith enables me to say, “Yes,

Lord. I don’t like what You’re doing. I don’t understand it. You’re going to have to take care of those poor people at the other end that thought I was coming to speak on this particular day. But God, You’re in charge.” I know the One who is i charge of the universe. He’s got the whole world where? In His hands. And that’s where I am.

So that to me is the key to acceptance: the fact that it is never for nothing. Faith, we might say, is the fulcrum of our moral and spiritual balance. Think of a see-saw. The fulcrum is the point where the see-saw rests. And my moral and spiritual balance depends on that stability of faith. And my faith, of course, rests on the bedrock that is Jesus Christ.

Now faith, like love, is not a feeling. We need to get that absolutely clear. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a willed obedience action. Jesus said again and again, “Don’t be afraid.” “Fear not.” “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Believe in God. Believe also in Me.” “Accept, take up the cross and follow.”