.
.
Our every affliction
is God's concern. He genuinely cares — and that care runs deep. It's His way of
teaching you the all-important lesson of submission to Him — total dependence
on His infinite wisdom and unbounded love. He will not stop the shaking until
you stop resisting. God is interested in using us as living object lessons to
others. That is precisely why He urges us to present ourselves as living
sacrifices. Tell Him that you want to be His living object lesson of patience
and stability to others . . . and don't forget to thank Him for the winds of
affliction that have blown across your life. Yes, it's God who is allowing your
tightrope to shake. But it's also God who spreads the safety net. Our
struggling is not the cause of our falling . . . but of God raising us higher.
by Pastor Chuck
Swindoll
Some years have
required me to have the skill of a tightrope walker to stay balanced.
If you're like me, sometimes
it seems we barely keep steady on our spiritual tightrope . . . and then
something — or someone — shakes the rope!
Believe it or not,
that someone shaking our rope is God. But why does He do that?
There may be dozens
of reasons why God will allow us to struggle this year, but I find at least
three worth remembering.
Each comes from the
apostle Paul's pen.
Paul began his second letter to the Corinthian believers
by confessing who our divine rope-shaker is: "God is our merciful
Father and the source of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3).
This statement is no
casual sympathy card with rhyming words and a glitzy greeting. Our mighty God
comforts us as we struggle!
Regardless of the need, "He comforts us in all
our troubles" (2 Corinthians 1:4).
That draws the circle
completely around your situation and mine.
Our every affliction
is God's concern. He genuinely cares — and that care runs deep.
But why are we
afflicted? Why would He shake the rope and then comfort us at the same time?
Paul offers these three reasons.
Reason 1: That We Might Be Prepared to Comfort Others
Who can understand
what it is like to sit alongside a loved one dying of a terminal illness?
Who knows the
heartache of a broken home?
What about someone
who understands the loss of a child . . . or the misery of a teenager on drugs
. . . or the anguish of living with an alcoholic mate . . . or the loss of a
job?
Who on earth
understands?
I'll tell you who — the
person who has endured those trials while wrapped in the blanket of God's
comfort.
Better than anybody
else, you who have actually been through each stinging experience are the
choicest counselors God can use.
This is one of the reasons we suffer — "so that
we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the
same comfort God has given us" (2
Corinthians 1:4).
Look back at the
chain reaction. What goes around, comes around.
We suffer . . . God
comes alongside to comfort . . . others suffer . . . we step alongside to
comfort them.
With God's arm firmly
around my shoulders, I have the strength and the stability to place my arm
around the shoulder of another.
It never fails:
similar experiences create mutual understanding.
Look at Paul's words: "In fact, we expected to
die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only
on God, who raises the dead" (2
Corinthians 1:9).
Maybe you are
standing with Paul at the desperate point beyond your own strength.
Hope has quietly
slipped out the back door. The despair is palpable. A "quick fix"
isn't possible.
Burdens push heavy on
bruised inner tissue. We're convinced that the end has come!
Unbelievable as it
may seem, God has a reason even in this.
Reason 2: That We Might Not Trust in Ourselves
Did you miss this
truth, wedged in the middle of verse 9?
Paul puts his finger
on a second reason for our season of sorrow: that we might come to a complete
end of ourselves and learn the power of total dependence.
When Paul's own
strength had ebbed away, he found another strength.
When he finally hit
bottom, Paul learned that he was not down in the dirt but rather in the palm of
God's hand.
He could sink no
lower because he was cradled in those everlasting arms.
Perhaps I am writing
to a stubborn, suffering saint who is wrestling with God over an ongoing
affliction.
You have not yet laid
down your arms and decided to trust in Him completely.
Can't you see, my
friend, that God is shaking your rope for a reason?
It's His way of
teaching you the all-important lesson of submission to Him — total dependence
on His infinite wisdom and unbounded love.
He will not stop the
shaking until you stop resisting; believe me.
Who knows better than
God that case-hardened independence within you? How much longer are you going
to fight God?
Suffering reveals our
creature status. We are neither all-wise nor infinite in strength. But God is
both.
And we need Him — we
were created to need Him. Desperately.
Reason 3: That We Might Learn to Give Thanks in
Everything
You'll never be able
to understand this third reason until you've grappled with the first two. Notice
how Paul phrases this to his Corinthian friends in verse 11:
“And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many
people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for
our safety.”
Look at it this way:
Paul wrote them a thank-you note.
He considered his
suffering an opportunity to share his life with others.
Paul felt drawn to
the Corinthians with cords tied to the innermost being.
As they mutually
joined in and helped him through their prayers, many people gave God thanks . .
. including Paul himself.
God is interested in
using us as living object lessons to others.
That is precisely why
He urges us to present ourselves as living sacrifices.
What might happen in
your life if you stopped fighting God and started to praise Him for your pain?
Tell Him that you
want to be His living object lesson of patience and stability to others . . .
and don't forget to thank Him for the winds of affliction that have blown
across your life.
Yes, it's God who is
allowing your tightrope to shake.
But it's also God who spreads the safety net. Our struggling is not the cause of our falling . . . but of God raising us higher.
Pastor Chuck Swindoll has devoted his life to the accurate, practical teaching and application of God’s Word. Since 1998, he has served as the senior pastor-teacher of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, but Chuck’s listening audience extends beyond a local church body. As a leading program in Christian broadcasting since 1979, Insight for Living airs around the world. Chuck’s leadership as president and now chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary has helped prepare and equip a new generation for ministry.
https://insight.org/resources/article-library/individual/why-god-shakes-your-spiritual-tightrope
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