A VERY STRONG FAITH is brightest when circumstances are darkest. What did Job learn when he experienced a devastating and multiple swipe by the Evil One? What dawned upon him when he had lost his enormous wealth and ten children? Well, this was his response: He fell on his face, worshiped and said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." The Scriptures report that "through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God." (Job 1:21,22).
Do I BLESS God when tough times come? A MATURE FAITH EVEN WONDERS WHAT POSITIVE AND SANCTIFYING THING GOD IS UP TO IN SUCH EXPERIENCES OF LIFE. DO I UNDERSTAND WHEN I ASK GOD TO CHANGE MY CIRCUMSTANCES THAT HE IS USING THOSE TOUGH CIRCUMSTANCES TO CHANGE ME?
Admittedly, this handling of difficulties is easier said than done. But consider further 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 where Paul, after God refused to heal his physical malady, responded with such a trusting faith, saying "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."
Such a faith is a dynamic and implicit trust in a God Who wisely engineers our lives. And, we rest in the fact.
Matthew Henry knew this wisdom when he remarked, "Sometimes Christ sees that we need the sickness for the good of our souls more than the healing for the ease of our bodies."
And the inimitable Spurgeon put it this way, "I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has."
May God give His people this insightfulness along with its special faith (wrought in us by the knowledge of the Scriptures) that when struggling with the realities of life here below a certain brightness still shines because ours is a bright faith during life's darkest hours. Many of God's children have experienced this.
- dick christen
