In Acts chapter 3, Peter heals a “man lame from birth” who would sit by the gate of the temple to collect alms. This grown man had to be at least likely 20 years old and I’ve read some places he was 38. That’s a long time to be lame before God chooses to heal you! Certainly, he had prayed for years to be healed. Certainly, he may have doubted God’s goodness and love. Like the woman with the issue of blood who hemorrhaged for 12 years before God healed her, he had to wait a very long time before an answer to his prayers came. A few days ago, I posted about this woman and encouraged us to reach out to God in faith! However, I want to temper that encouragement today by reflecting on God’s sovereignty. He doesn’t always heal us when we ask, if at all, and this reality doesn’t mean He is unfaithful or that we shouldn’t trust Him. I want to reflect today on what scripture might show us about this, sometimes, disturbing truth.
One of the most powerful examples of God’s sovereign purposes is Jesus Himself. Faced with the brutality of the cross awaiting Him, He prayed in the garden the night before that the Father would “take this cup” from Him. He prayed that prayer 3 times, but ended it with a commitment to obey no matter what, saying, “yet not My will, but Your will be done.” God chose not to spare His own Son. And if Jesus was not immune to being denied, so too may we at times suffer despite our hearts cry. Jesus models our response to us: yet not our will, but Yours be done.
Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” The Bible exhorts us to continue to trust in Him even when our suffering does not make sense. Yet, have mercy on yourself when you doubt and consider John the Baptist, who literally prepared people to receive the Messiah. After suffering in prison for no crime, He asked the disciples to go ask Jesus if He was the one they were to expect, if He was the Messiah after all. Even he doubted in his trial! So, too may we, but it’s never too late to encourage yourself to trust in God despite it all.
Like John the Baptist, St. Paul also suffered inexplicably a “thorn in the flesh,” cruel messengers that tormented him. Like Jesus, he asked three times for God to deliver him, yet he was denied. In 2 Cor 12:9 Paul said the Lord spoke to him and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Right alongside John and Paul, Heb 11:35-39 shows us there were so many “heroes” of the faith, who suffered torture, flogging, mocking, stoning, imprisonment, killed by the sword, destitute, and persecuted, “of whom the world was not worthy.” Verse 39 says, “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.” They never got the promise in their life on earth, but rather suffered for the sake of the Body of Christ and God’s greater, eternal purposes.
St. Peter encourages us in 1 Peter 4:12-13, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when His glory is revealed.” Even the Lord Jesus on the cross, cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” Imagine, even God felt abandoned in His great suffering. And yet He overcame. John 16:33 says, “In the world you face persecution and trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world!” In order to conquer, Jesus had to endure feeling abandoned in great pain first. He conquered in His resurrection, just as those saints that preceded and followed Him. They didn’t receive the promise in their lives on earth, and sometimes we won’t either.
But we know our duty is just like Jesus: Your will be done, Lord. In Job 13:15, Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” We are to trust Him in faith anyway, and to trust also our suffering to Him. Finally, 1 Peter 1:6-9 encourages us to keep the faith, stating, “In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith- being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Sometimes, we have to wait and to endure, for the sake of God’s purposes beyond our understanding, for the sake of our faith and His glory. We have to rejoice that we get to suffer with Christ our Savior and that we will gain the Victory He has already won in this fellowship of suffering. Praise God that He wastes not our suffering and that it is not meaningless in His hands!
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