Psalms 34:18 – The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

While we know that life is full of trouble, we sometimes going through it thinking some particular difficulty or pain will never come to us or near us. When we hear of certain tragedies or difficulties others face, we sometimes wonder why. What is God’s purpose in such a painful and difficult situation? Why would God allow such painful things to happen to His people or worse, an innocent child? We question the goodness and wisdom of God in these situations. We ask, why?

‘Is it a sin to ask God why? …. The psalmist asked why. Job, a blameless man, suffering horrible torments on an ash heap, asked why. It does not seem to me to be sinful to ask the question. What is sinful is resentment against God and His dealings with us

The reason we think this way and question the goodness and wisdom of God in certain situation is because we really don’t understand Him and His ways. We should remember however, that the Bible never calls us to understand all the reasons why, it calls us to trust God. It calls us to trust the one who loved us when we were still sinners and gave His Son to die in our place. It calls us to trust the one who has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. Because of His great love for us, all He allows in our lives is ultimately for our good and for His glory.

Jerry Bridges in his book “Trusting God” said: ‘God never pursues His glory at the expense of the good of His people, nor does He ever seek our good at the expense of His glory. He has designed His eternal purpose so that His glory and our good are inextricably bound together. What comfort and encouragement this should be to us.’

Does knowing that God does all He does for our good mean we can never ask why when we go through difficulties we don’t understand? Elisabeth Elliot answers that for us in her devotional “Keep a Quiet Heart” –

‘Is it a sin to ask God why? …. The psalmist asked why. Job, a blameless man, suffering horrible torments on an ash heap, asked why. It does not seem to me to be sinful to ask the question. What is sinful is resentment against God and His dealings with us….I have often asked why. Many things have happened which I didn’t plan on and which human rationality could not explain. In the darkness of my perplexity and sorrow I have heard Him say quietly, Trust Me.’

God is our loving, heavenly father and we must never be afraid to pour out our hearts to Him. He already knows what is in our hearts anyway. He even commands us to come and pour our heart to Him.  Psalms 62:8 – Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

 God is wiser, kinder, more loving, more forgiving and infinitely better than anyone and anything in all of creation. We can trust Him with all our pain and all our hurt. He is and will always be the God who is near to the broken hearted and the savior of those crushed in spirit. 

 Some reasons God allows suffering in our lives : 1 Peter 4:12-13; Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Romans 8:17.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. – John 14:13-14

In the text above, Jesus said whatever we ask in His name, He will do it. What does that really mean?  Is Jesus saying that we will get anything we ask in His name? Anything? Is He also saying if we don’t add the phrase “in Jesus’ name” to the end of all our prayers, He will not answer?

In response to the first question, some have tried to make that claim by saying we can ask for anything our hearts desire and the Lord is bound to answer because He promised. They have also used Psalms 37:4 to buttress their point. That verse says, “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

First of all, we know this is not what Jesus is saying.  John 14 is part of the upper room discourse. The whole chapter is about Christ being our comfort not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Those who have come to believe in Christ and truly love Him are those who take the time to seek out His will and desires for their lives. As Psalm 34 says, those who love the Lord “delight in Him”. Delighting in Him means getting to know Him through His Word, and a true knowledge of Him will cause us to love what He loves and hate what He hates. When we love what He loves, then we will ask for only those things that are in accordance with His will which will bring Him glory. That, He is bound to answer. 1 John 5:14 tells us that: “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

We come to the second question. Is adding the phrase “in Jesus’ name” at the end of every prayer the rocket that shoots our prayer right into the throne room of God? What happens when we don’t add the phrase to the end of or prayers? Will that prayer ever reach heaven? The short answer is, yes, that prayer will reach heaven.

Just like delighting ourselves in Him, to pray in Jesus’ name means that what we are asking in our prayer is consistent with what Jesus would want us to have, something consistent with His will for us.  It is to pray in accordance with the mind of Christ. The only way we can ask for anything that is in accordance with the mind of Christ is to first know what the mind of Christ is. This is only possible by spending time in His world. This is why we can never divorce prayer from Bible study. We pray more effectively when we pray according to the will of God as revealed in the word of God.

Praying in Jesus name is not a sticker we attach to the end of every prayer to send it flying to God’s throne, it is praying according to the mind of Christ as revealed in the word of God.

Soli Deo Gloria!

God never meant for every pain, sickness or wrong done to us, to be righted on this side of eternity.

In a world filled with pain and suffering, our natural reaction is to do anything we can to take the pain and suffering away, rightly so. We were not made to live in pain and sorrow, sin brought pain and sorrow into the world, so wherever or whenever we see anyone in pain, our natural reaction is to do anything we can to make the pain go away. That is why we pray, visit and do all we can to help the sick and those experiencing some kind of pain and loss. That is also why we get angry when we experience injustice either personally or around us.

While it is good and Biblical to help those in need and to try as much as we can to help alleviate the pain and suffering of those around us, we must never forget that God never meant for every pain, sickness or wrong done to us, to be righted on this side of eternity. In His infinite wisdom, God uses everything in the world: the good, the bad and the ugly to achieve His purposes and as much as we may not like it, there are some difficulties that will not go away or be alleviated until we see in Him in glory.

The whole purpose of our redemption is not to make this world a better place for us to live, but to give us a hope of heaven

Knowing God and making Him known is the reason He left us on earth after He saved us, so the Lord expects us believers to seek His wisdom in every situation. Every situation should be seen as an opportunity to not only know God, but also to make Him known. When we encounter those in some pain or are suffering around us, we should try to meet the physical need as much as we can, but we must never put that above their spiritual need. We must give room for God in that situation. The whole purpose of our redemption is not to make this world a better place for us to live, but to give us a hope of heaven. This is the hope we are to share with everyone we come in contact with.

In helping those in need, pain and who are suffering, the gospel of Christ must be at the fore front. Our goal in helping must always be to point the suffering person to Christ. No matter how much we love people, we cannot love them more than God.  Jesus said in Mark 8:36 – For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  In trying to take care of the physical, we must never, never forget their soul.

Soli Deo Gloria!