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God Knows What You’re Going Through
Draw near to the God
who knows you exactly and knows exactly what you need
Stephen
Altrogge
Before you criticize someone, you should walk
a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away
from them and you have their shoes. – Jack Handey
My friend Adam is a
wise guy. Not in a, “A rabbi, a priest, and a vegan walk into a bar” sort
of way, but in a Proverbs, real life street wisdom sort of way.
He is a residence director at our local
university, which means he works with college students every day.
He deals with students in trouble, students
in the dumps, students on academic probation, students on drugs, students who
have been assaulted, and students who are on the verge of dropping out of
college.
In other words, he deals with kids who are
pretty vulnerable. Kids who have really been slapped around by life.
When interacting with
vulnerable kids Adam could easily resort to saying, “I know what you’re
going through.”
After all, that’s what we say when someone is
in a tough spot.
We try to relate their experience to our
experience. We try to sympathize with them. To comfort them out of our own
experience.
To let them know they’re not alone. To make
them feel loved. And that impulse to comfort others is a good impulse.
But Adam doesn’t always do that. Why? Because
he knows that in most cases, he doesn’t really know what a person is going
through.
He may be able to relate to some
circumstances, but he can’t really know what a person is going through. That is
wisdom.
The reality is, when someone is suffering, we
don’t know what they’re going through.
Even if we have experienced similar
circumstances as a person who is suffering, we don’t process the world the way
they do.
And we don’t have the same personal history,
biological makeup, or support system.
When someone is going through the meat
grinder, we can only know a tiny portion of what they are really experiencing.
Our limited ability
to know the suffering of others is what makes 2 Corinthians 7:6 so precious. It
says, “But God, who comforts the downcast….”
Jesus knows us fully. He knows our strengths
and weaknesses, our family history, our biological makeup, our worldview.
He knows every nook and cranny of us.
He knows us better than we know ourselves.
And he also knows suffering on an intense,
personal level.
Jesus’ knowledge of suffering is not
abstract, ivory tower, textbook knowledge.
Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was mocked,
betrayed, and humiliated.
As he hung on the cross he was cut off from
the Father. Jesus knew excruciating, overwhelming, crushing sorrow.
The combination of Jesus’ omniscience and
personal experience with deep suffering perfectly equip him to comfort us in
our own suffering.
He really does know what we’re going through,
and he is ready to comfort us when we are downcast.
He doesn’t leave us to muddle and slog
through suffering on our own. He doesn’t tell us to suck it up, buck up, and
get up.
He meets us in our downcast state and pours
out grace upon us.
Suffering tempts us to withdraw from God when
in reality we should press hard into God.
Are you downcast? Are you suffering?
Do you feel like you’ve been chewed up and
spit out?
Do you feel like butter scraped over too much
bread?
Draw near to the God who comforts the
downcast.
Draw near to the God who knows you exactly
and knows exactly what you need. Draw near in your weakness and weariness and
ready-to-call-it-quits-ness.
God has a special place in his heart for the
downcast. Move toward that place.
Stephen
Altrogge
serves as a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church. Find out more at The Blazing
Center.
https://salvationprosperity.net/god-knows-what-youre-going-through/
Man of Sorrows, 
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