I haven't forgotten how I felt on that fall afternoon many years ago. Some weeks prior to that afternoon my husband and I were involved in a pretty serious car accident. The injuries I sustained required a difficult, painful time of recovery. There was nothing easy about the following months but that's a story for another day! Many people were praying for me and our family asking Jehovah Rapha, the God Who Heals, to show up and do what only He can - make me well again quickly.
That afternoon a friend stopped by our home. She asked if she could pray for me. I was happy for all the prayers I could get! She prayed and asked God to intervene and bring healing and restoration. When she finished her prayer, she immediately asked, Are you healed? I knew I wasn't. No healing miracle took place during her prayer. I said, No.
That was when the finger pointing began. When I said NO, she said, Well, you just don't have enough faith. I was astonished and offended.
I pushed back with a question: That's an interesting conclusion for you to draw. Tell me, how is it that I am not healed because I do not have enough faith? I know that you recently prayed for Mr. X [a certain famous someone who had a spinal cord injury after being shot]. You went to see him just like you came to see me today. You prayed for him just like you prayed for me today. He is still in his wheelchair. He also was not healed when you prayed. Is that what you told him after your prayer - that he did not have enough faith?
O, No! she said. He wasn't healed because it didn't serve God's greatest good for him to be healed at this time. I was startled! I was angry! I was not healed due to my lack of faith! It was my fault! The other person was not healed - not due to lack of faith but rather due to the plan and purpose of God. The only difference I could see between the two of us by her measure was that he was famous and I was not.
Sorry, but the God I know doesn't operate that way! He doesn't pick and choose only the wise, the wonderful, the rich, the famous on whom to bestow His favor! He says, I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. (Rom. 9:15) But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things ... so that no one may boast before Him. (1 Cor. 1:27-29)
I took a deep breath, looked her straight in the eye and said, I agree that God does not heal at times because He has a greater plan. But, my friend, faith is a gift from God. Faith isn't something I conjure up or manufacture. (Eph. 2:8) I know that God does not heal when He doesn't for His own good purpose and plan. God does heal when He does also for His own good purpose and plan. Healing comes from Him. Healing depends on Him. When God doesn't choose to heal me or anyone else, He has His reasons and that is enough for me!
What a terrible burden to dump on a person in the middle of pain and loss - it's your fault!
You aren't strong enough or spiritual enough to get what you need! Pointing fingers, placing blame on the person God doesn't choose to heal is deeply wrong! Point your finger at God if you must. Place the blame on Him. He makes His plan. He works His plan. He walks with you and me in the pain. Maybe He changes the circumstances. Maybe He doesn't, but whatever He does is about Him. It's His choice! That's a very, very good and comforting reality!
Nasty surprise around midnight two nights ago was about the washing machine. My husband needed a pair of trousers and a shirt washed to wear at 5 AM on Monday. Of course, he forgot to say so until we were going to bed!
Not wanting to wash two things for a load, I also threw in a couple of towels. At midnight when I went to put the washer load into the dryer, there was water running across the laundry room floor and the washer tub was FULL of water! UGH!
I tried to carefully advance the washer dial hoping the spin cycle would kick in to no avail. So I wrung all the water I could out of the towels, shirt and trousers. Then I threw the soggy items in the dryer. Of course, they took almost forever to dry. I was up and down all night starting and restarting the dryer.
Wouldn't you know that when I tried the spin cycle early yesterday it worked just fine, thank you very much! Double UGH!
Last night we went through the same drill (only a few hours earlier) but I blithely assumed the washer would work so threw a satin quilt in with a shirt and trousers and socks this time. Same scenario all over again! Once again I wrung as much water as I could out since the spin cycle wouldn't kick in for love or money!
Guess what? This morning - once again - the spin cycle is magically working so I could spin the quilt ........... NOW the question is: do I go shopping for a washer today or will the third time be the charm?
Did I mention that the washer is easily 25 years old? That alone doesn't bode well for a resurrection! It is a fact of life that things wear out, break, rust, etc.!
When our boys were growing up, I remember when the washer that preceded this one finally bit the dust along with the dish washer, the dryer, the refrigerator and the disposal - all in the same approximate time frame. Our youngest son wanted to know what the deal was with everything breaking at once. He was thinking some kind of oppressive conspiracy or something. I told him it was probably because they were all new about the same time so they were breathing their last gasping breaths in unison as well.
My washing machine is just a sad part of normal life. Everything wears out eventually or rusts or otherwise disintegrates - EVERYTHING this side of heaven! Every day I live I am more and more aware that even I am wearing out! Nights with little sleep used to be barely a blip on my radar; now I feel them to my bones!
We all have the stuff and mess we wake up with and lug through each day. Some people carry far heavier loads than others. Some of us stagger under the weight because the load is so heavy!
There is an awesome truth for heavy loads and days when things break and when money just won't stretch any further: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness! (Lam. 3:22-23) It is God's faithful promise for His children, and God ALWAYS keeps His promises!
No matter what your day looks like - God's faithful mercy is tailor-made for just such a day as this! God's faithfulness comes in exact measure to whatever you and I face in this hour, this day because He sees and knows! NEW EVERY morning - great is His faithfulness!
Singing the "
someone done me totally wrong" song might be your or my reality today. Life isn't fair and life does not come with a guarantee against betrayal, loss and pain! Sometimes I feel like the perpetrators of the totally wrong stuff get off scott-free and "ride off into the sunset" to do their damage to another unsuspecting target.It is true; it often seems that way! But that's not my call! I'm just responsible for my end. God promises to take care of the other side of this equation.What's a gal (or guy) to do when there is seemingly no possibility of repentance and restoration or even closure? Staying stuck in wanting to "take out a contract" on the perpetrator is not a hill to die on. Moving on and asking God to work His restoring grace in my heart is the only path of health and sanity for my own heart!Choosing the way of revenge or just-can't-forget-and-forgive does absolutely NO harm to the perpetrator but it does irreparable damage to my own heart! So making the terribly difficult but necessary step of forgiveness is actually the path of God's grace and mercy to me even if that grace and mercy seem severely won!Just askin' ................... think about it!
The only time I watch TV is to catch the news or see the weather. I don't even watch all the Steeler games start to finish. That's akin to HERESY in Pittsburgh - big time! This morning I turned on the TV to catch the news and caught an ad for Sea World in Orlando, Florida instead. The first line of the ad was "Fun is a renewable resource."The ad is intended to entice people to Sea World suggesting that Sea World is where great fun and other positive experiences can be had. The "renewable resource" part is geared to suggest "going green" and "taking care of our planet Earth." I'm not a "greenie" but I think we should all take care of the little patch of earth on which we live (that's another whole blog post).What the ad started me thinking about is other "renewable resources" of far more value than a visit to Sea World. Restoration, forgiveness, grace, mercy, justice are just a few "renewable resources" that come to my mind this Monday morning. - What a gift God gives us in that there is no brokenness in life that He cannot heal and restore!
- What a gift God give us and models for us in that forgiveness is always ready and available from our loving heavenly Father! He also calls us to have a ready store of forgiveness for others. We have - after all - received huge forgiveness so we should be ready and willing to forgive the much smaller offenses that come our way!
- What a gift God planned for and gives in that His grace (His favor and smile on us that we can never be good enough to earn but can receive as a free gift because of Jesus) comes in abundant supply over and over again!
- What a gift God gives us in His mercy! We deserve His anger and frown. Instead He gives us His Son to take our punishment (the death for our sin that we deserve to have to take for ourselves). Then His mercy is nenewable from moment to moment every time we stumble, every time we fall, every time we fail. We are all "screw-ups" in God's eyes, and He still loves and gives His mercy in new supply with the dawn of every day.
- What a gift God gives in his renewable justice! We all have hurts in life. We all want life to be fair. LIfe just isn't fair. That's a given. But the good news is that God extends both mercy and justice. God promises to fight our battles for us if we are part of His forever family! That's good news! He can and will do a much better job. He may be slower to work justice but, be sure, He will. It is His promise! God always keeps His promises!
- That's another "renewable resource" - God is always faithful! He does what He says He will do all the time and every time! Our hearts can take hope and comfort from knowing that God's restoration, forgiveness, grace, mercy and justice are only a prayer away and often just given even before we know our need!
If you're looking for restoration, forgiveness, grace, mercy and justice - both for your own heart and in your life as you relate to others - then the invitation (from God) is clear: "Come to Me ... I will give you rest"! (Matthew 11:28)
