Remember When

This week I am reading again John Piper’s short book, When the Darkness Will Not Lift. He makes the following comment:

“In fact the darkest experience for the child of God is when his faith sinks out of his own sight. Not out of God’s sight, but his. Yes, it is possible to be so overwhelmed with darkness that you do not know if you are a Christian—and yet still be one… We are not saved by producing faith on our own and then making that the basis of our new birth. It is the other way around, which means that God is at the bottom of my faith; and when it disappears for a season from my own view, God may yet be there sustaining its root in the new birth and protecting the seed from destruction.”

I’ve had times like that when—because I can’t see what God is doing—I question whether I’ve ever really had faith in Him or I’ve only had faith in my own abilities and insights. I look back over my life and wonder whether I was consciously following God’s direction or if He was dragging me places I didn’t want to go. In better times, I remember the ways God has used the twists and turns of my path to bring me to new places and ways to serve Him.

The enemy would have us forget every Divine providence, every nudge of the Spirit that has directed us, every sign of our faith at work. As Piper indicates, even saving faith is a gift of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). If we start to think we had anything to do with the origin of our faith, it’s only a short step to thinking we could therefore lose our faith. But what God has truly given cannot be removed: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

The answer to doubt is to remember what God has done, starting with Scripture and continuing through the present day. How many times is the Exodus referred to in the Bible? It is frequently repeated (e.g. Psalm 66, 77, 78, 106), because we all need frequent reminders of God’s power and authority over all the earth. I may not see or understand how God is at work today, but that doesn’t negate the fact that He has made His presence known in many times and many ways since the beginning of creation.

“Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish My purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9-10).

I have a shelf full of journals in my bedroom that go back more than 20 years. Even without opening them, I remember some of the things that I wrote there, and I am reminded that God has been at work over those many years—changing me, freeing me from certain sins, helping me to endure hard times, and using me for His good purposes. On the radio today I heard some discussion of how many people would go back in time if they could. Even though there are things I wish I could change right now, I have no desire to go back to who I was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago, and I can only attribute that to the fact that God has been at work even when I couldn’t see it. That may not relieve the present darkness, but it does help me put it in perspective of God’s enduring love and grace.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Psalm 103:2).

***

Here’s a related article from ChurchLeaders.com that I found helpful.

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV. Image copyright free from pixabay.com, revised by Dawn Rutan. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

In the Storm

Have you ever thought about the storms in Scripture? There are quite a few of them. The first and biggest was the flood in the days of Noah (Genesis 6-8). Noah had the privilege of hearing God’s direct commands to build the ark and take in the animals. But after the door was shut, it seems that God was silent for about a year. I imagine Noah and his family were wondering if the earth would ever reappear or if God had forgotten them. Eventually God did dry up the land and call Noah out of the ark.

Another familiar storm was the result of Jonah’s disobedience and fleeing from his call to Nineveh. The others in the ship somehow knew that this storm had a purpose behind it, and they cast lots to find out whose fault it was. Jonah was apparently ready to die in the sea, but God rescued him with a great fish. It’s not clear whether Jonah actually learned his lesson or not. He did what God commanded, but grumbled about it to the end.

In the Gospels there are a couple storms mentioned. In the first, the disciples were headed across the lake while Jesus was asleep in the boat. A storm arose that frightened even the experienced fishermen among them. They woke Jesus, who stilled the storm and then asked them, “Where is your faith?” Their response was to marvel, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him?” (Luke 8:25).

Later on, Jesus sent the disciples into the boat alone while He took time to pray. When He came walking on the sea, they were terrified, “but immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (Matt. 14:27). Peter was bold enough to get out of the boat, but began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus. This storm ended with the disciples worshiping Jesus, saying, “Truly You are the Son of God” (v. 33).

One other prominent storm occurred with the Apostle Paul in Acts 27. The crew of the ship made an ill-advised decision to leave port and ended up in a major storm that lasted at least two weeks. Under divine guidance, Paul urged them to stay with the ship and to eat when they could. They finally ran aground and managed to make it to shore on the debris of the ship with all lives saved.

From just these few examples, we see that the storms of life may be a result of individual sin (Jonah), the sin of the multitudes (Noah), bad decisions (Acts), to reveal the Savior (the disciples), or for other unknown reasons. In Finding Jesus in the Storm, John Swinton writes “Retrospective spiritual direction allows people to see where God was in the midst of the storms and to help them use that knowledge as an encouragement and source of hope now and for the future” (p. 214). While I agree with that in principle, I know that it’s easier to see how God was at work after the fact than it is during the storm. When you’re focused on survival, it can be hard to remember God’s faithfulness. When you’re busy bailing water, you don’t always remember the blessings of nets full of fish (John 21:6-7) or deliverance from danger (2 Cor. 11:25-30).

Like David we may be saying, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me” (Psalm 69:1-2). Whether the storm is physical, mental, emotional, or relational, there is a spiritual aspect to it. Storms test our faith and our understanding of who God is and how He will act. C.S. Lewis wrote, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be” (Letter to Father Peter Bide 4/19/59, Collected Letters Vol. 3).

When we struggle to remember God’s presence and we doubt His care, we need others who can remind us of the truth—not just quoting Scripture at us or speculating as to what God is up to, but walking with us through the storm, embodying God’s love and grace, and praying for God to sustain us in the darkest of nights. We need more people like that in our churches.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Unfailing Love

I have been savoring Michael Card’s book, Inexpressible: Hesed and the Mystery of God’s Lovingkindness. Thankfully he made the chapters fairly short so you can chew on an idea for a while before moving on to the next one.

Hesed is a Hebrew word used over 200 times in the Old Testament to describe God’s character, His works, and His people. It is notoriously difficult to translate, not because it is obscure but because it is so rich in meaning. No single English word can do the job. Some of the most common translations include: mercy, kindness, love, lovingkindness, steadfast love, faithfulness, and loyalty. Here are just a few examples:

“‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love [hesed], forgiving iniquity and transgression, but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’ Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of Your steadfast love [hesed], just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now” (Num. 14:18-19 ESV).

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His gracious covenant loyalty [hesed] for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commands” (Deut. 7:9 CSB).

“Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy [hesed] with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts” (1 Kings 8:23 NKJV).

“Surely Your goodness and unfailing love [hesed] will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6 NLT).

“Your lovingkindness and graciousness [hesed], O Lord, extend to the skies, Your faithfulness [reaches] to the clouds” (Psalm 36:5 Amp).

In the New Testament the concept of hesed appears in Jesus’ life and teaching (e.g Matt. 9:13, Matt. 20:14-15, Luke 10:36-37). God’s love and mercy are meant to overflow in our lives so that we show the same love and mercy to the world around us.

Late one night as I was pondering what I’d been reading, I pictured myself examining a cup of water and thinking I understood water while being oblivious to the ocean beside me. I think that’s a bit like our understanding of God’s love in the church. We talk about it, sing about it, and proclaim it to others, but we only know one teacup of the vastness of His steadfast love toward us. And because of our anemic understanding of God’s love, our own love is often shallow and feeble. To use the Apostle Paul’s words in Ephesians 3:18-19, we need to “have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The book concludes with this thought,

“God commands his people to do justly and to love hesed [Micah 6:8]. We struggle with both. If it were simply a matter of doing justly or loving hesed, we might be able to come up with a formula, a set of rules to follow. But the two must function together. We can do justly only by loving hesed. The doing must flow from the loving. And the loving is a response, as love is always a response, to the God of Exodus 34, who is full of hesed and at the same time does not leave the guilty unpunished… In Jesus of Nazareth, the embodiment of hesed, God was perfectly just and perfectly merciful. Through Jesus he fulfilled the promise to not leave the guilty unpunished by placing that punishment on Jesus in an act of pure and perfect hesed. Jesus did justice by loving hesed. He gave himself so that we might be conquered by the kindness of God, a kindness that leads us to repentance, that draws us to the cross… The final challenge to you and me is to take whatever understanding we have in our heads of hesed and allow the Spirit to move it into our hearts. We must enter into the world of the word hesed and then take that world into our world, back to our families, to our churches and towns—to our enemies. The Scriptures are offering us an unimaginable opportunity to make Jesus believable and beautiful by offering everything (even our very lives) to those who have a right to expect nothing from us.” (133-135).

Some time back I memorized the first three verses of Psalm 136 in Hebrew. (You can find anything on YouTube!) At the time I did not realize that they contain a version of the word hesed, since I’m not a Hebrew scholar. Those verses have often brought comfort in the middle of the night, and now that I have a somewhat fuller understanding of God’s hesed love and faithfulness I will cherish them even more.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1-3).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV. Cover art courtesy of Amazon.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Imperfect Peace

In the sermon last Sunday at our church, we were asked, “What is one promise of God that, if you really believed it, would make a huge difference in your life?” Almost immediately the passage that came to my mind was Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV),

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Not too surprisingly, the message I listened to on Truth For Life that afternoon was based on 1 Peter 5:6-7,

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”

I’m sure I’m not the only one who would say that the promise of the peace of God is one that we want to believe but often don’t. We do one of two things—we hold onto the situation and worry over it like a dog with a bone, or we give it to God but keep retrieving it from Him. It feels easier to keep worrying about the problem than to trust that God will take care of it in His own perfect way and time.

I was reminded of a hymn by Advent Christian author Francis A. Blackmer. It’s one that I dislike because I think it paints an unrealistic picture of the Christian life. The first two verses say:

Once I thought I walked with Jesus, yet such changeful feelings had,
Sometimes trusting, sometimes doubting, sometimes joyful, sometimes sad.

But He called me closer to Him, bade my doubts and fears all cease,
And when I had fully yielded, filled my soul with perfect peace.

Refrain: O the peace my Savior gives, peace I never knew before!
And my way has brighter grown since I learned to trust Him more.

That’s a nice thought, but I don’t think anyone consistently experiences “perfect peace” for the duration of their Christian life, and a lack of peace is not necessarily an indicator that one is not walking with Jesus. As Alistair Begg commented, “Any of us this morning who were prepared to say that we are not anxious at any point in our lives are probably in need of some significant help.” Anxiety is a normal part of our experience. (Hence CCEF is hosting a national conference on “Anxiety and the God of Peace” this week). However, it should not be an overwhelming and unchanging experience for the Christian. We have a God who loves us and who cares for all the details of our lives. He knows our needs better than we do ourselves, and He alone is sovereign over all the aspects of our lives. We can throw our anxieties on His back and stop carrying them ourselves. And we can keep bringing them back to Him every time we realize we’ve picked them up again—day by day, hour by hour, or minute by minute.

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3). We lack perfect peace because we don’t (and can’t) keep our minds focused on God at all times. We are easily distracted by events, circumstances, people, and busyness, but God is always faithful even when we forget. His peace is available each time we remember to turn our attention back to Him.

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Fightings and Fears

One day recently while reading a fictional story, I encountered the sentence, “Don’t try to fight alone.” As I moved on through the paragraph, I realized what I had heard in my mind was, “Try not to fight alone,” and I knew that was a very different idea. It’s not unlike the line in a Casting Crowns song that I often misremember as “You’re on your own, keep holding on…”

Isn’t that how we tend to live though? “Look out for yourself; take care of number one; God helps those who help themselves…” It sounds good until you start comparing it to Scripture.

• “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God” (Isaiah 50:10 ESV). 
• “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 62:5-6). 
• “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent” (Exodus 14:14). 
• “For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory” (Deuteronomy 20:4). 

It is not God’s intent for us to fight alone or to hang on by our own strength. Rather, He will do the fighting and will hold onto us when we have no strength of our own. Trying to stand alone is what often leads to fear. We recognize that we are weak and we need someone bigger and stronger. Edward Welch writes in Running Scared:

“Search Scripture and find that our fears are not trivial to God. ‘Do not be afraid’ are not the words of a flesh-and-blood friend, a mere human like yourself. They are not the hollow words of a fellow passenger on a sinking ship, who has no experience in shipwrecks, can’t swim, and has no plan. These words are more like those of the captain who says, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know what to do.’ When the right person speaks these words you might be comforted. Remember, ‘Do not be afraid’ are the words of the One who can match speech with action. He is the sovereign King who really is in control. The efficacy of the words is directly related to the authority, power, and love of the One speaking them” (62).

Whether the command is “Fear not,” “Be still,” “Wait,” or “Don’t fight,” we can trust the authority of the One who is in control of every situation. He will fight for us. And because He is a good Father, He also gives us the other members of His Body to walk with us through the hills and valleys of life. We don’t need to walk alone or to fight alone.

I can’t help but think of Matt Redman’s song “Never Once,” which is a great reminder of God’s faithfulness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1bXG4WIesA

“If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:9-10).

© 2016 Dawn Rutan.

Just a Little Faith

I was thinking this afternoon of some hymn lyrics that are often hard to sing without lying. I started flipping through the hymnal and came across several songs that fit the category. One that struck me several weeks ago was “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er.” At the time I had very little trust or proof to hold onto, though I did cling to the last line of the song, “O for grace to trust Him more.”

Another hymn that may be less familiar is Francis Blackmer’s “Since I’ve Learned to Trust Him More.” I wish I knew the story behind the song, because after the first verse it gets into territory unknown to me: “Now I’m trusting every moment, nothing less can be enough... And my way has brighter grown since I’ve learned to trust Him more.” I don’t know many (or any?) Christians who could honestly sing those words most of the time. For most of us the journey is a lot more sporadic.

I appreciate the authenticity of words like Charlotte Elliott: “Just as I am, though tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come!” Or Edward Mote: “When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil... When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.”

Songs like “Day by day and with each passing moment” or “Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine,” seem to be more realistic about the ongoing battle to cling to faith. It isn’t a straight and easy road from the moment we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord. There are steep hills and dark valleys that make faith a daily decision. There are times when faith is easy because God’s presence and power are evident to us. There are also times when we (or at least I) have to say, “God, I don’t know what You are doing, and I don’t much like this path, but I want to trust You through it.” Some days we may not have the faith to cling to Him, but we just hope that He’s still clinging to us.

And that is really what matters most. We can never generate enough faith to save ourselves or to breeze through life with no doubts. While we commonly read Ephesians 2:8-9 to mean that salvation is a gift, I think it also means that faith itself is a gift. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (ESV). God not only saves us by His grace, but He also gives us the faith to accept it, and then enables us to walk in the path He’s prepared for us. At no point does it depend on our strength or ability, so we have no place for boasting. Even the weakness of our faith becomes reason to boast in God’s grace to hold onto us.

Jesus told His disciples, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). However, He never tested them on that point, for which I’m sure they were grateful. He already knew then, and He knows now, just how small our faith can be in the face of life’s challenges. As others have said, it’s not a matter of how big our faith is, but how big our God is. Faith may grow or shrink day by day, but God never changes. As Priscilla Owens put it, “We have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

So it’s okay if your faith feels small and you can’t say “I’m trusting every moment.” God already knows, and He’s not going to let go.

“My soul clings to you; Your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:8).

© 2015 Dawn Rutan.

All or None

As I’m reading through the Psalms again, one particular word caught my attention in Psalm 25—“all.” It occurs a few times, but the first one I noticed was verse 10, “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness…” (ESV). Not just a few or some, but all. Even though I fully believe in the sovereignty of God, I sometimes find myself thinking that God has had to switch to plan B or plan Z in reaction to something that has happened. But the fact is that He knows the end from the beginning (including my sin!), so He’s never reactionary. He knows each step of the path He has planned for me and therefore I can trust that His path is indeed “steadfast love and faithfulness.”

Psalm 139:16 is a good reminder, “In Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 145:17 gives another clarification, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works,” and yet it’s not always easy to trust His plans. I can only imagine the peace it would bring to always believe that He knows, He cares, and He’s got it under control. Matthew Henry’s commentary on Psalm 25 says,

“All the paths of the Lord, that is, all his promises and all his providences, are mercy and truth. In all God’s dealings, his people may see his mercy displayed, and his word fulfilled, whatever afflictions they are now exercised with. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth; and so it will appear when they come to their journey’s end.”

That brings me back to verse 5, “Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day long.” There’s another “all” that I need to remember. I know my patience is short, especially when it comes to waiting on God. I don’t want to wait even a few hours, much less days or weeks or years. Besides waiting for direction, I’m left waiting for an explanation from God, but that’s not likely to be forthcoming in this life. He’s more interested in building my faith than in answering my questions.

In The Wounded Woman: Hope and Healing for Those Who Hurt, the authors write:

“Each and every difficulty is a test to determine our patience, courage, character, determination, and faith. Sometimes we handle our challenges well, sometimes we don’t… Without wounds, my faith remains untested. And without moving forward, my faith will be unrewarded.”

The test that comes with my current path is not for God’s knowledge, but for my own understanding. And as I realize my weaknesses, I know my need for Him better. When I’m sufficient in my own strength, or believe that I am strong in a particular area, God can’t use that for His glory. But when the test reveals how short I fall, God has the opportunity to pick me up and reveal His own strength and character. It’s then that I remember verse 18, “Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins,” including the sin of thinking more highly of myself than I should and thinking too little of God.

“Indeed, none who wait for You shall be put to shame…” (v. 3). That’s the kind of all or nothing thinking that I need to embrace, as opposed to thinking that I’ve got it all together, or that God isn’t always steadfastly loving and faithful. If I expect God (and man) to act in ways I can understand and predict, I am sure to be disappointed repeatedly. But if I can trust that “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,” no matter what they may look like to me, I can rest in His providence.

As is often the case, this is a lesson in progress, and I don’t know how well I’m learning it because the test isn’t over yet. In the meantime, here are a couple more “alls” to hold onto:

“The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down… The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him; He also hears their cry and saves them.” –Psalm 145:14, 17-18

Lessons from Affliction

This morning I listened to three podcast by Alistair Begg on the faithfulness of God (www.truthforlife.org broadcasts for August 19-21, 2014). In the second half of “God’s Faithfulness in Affliction,” he presents ten purposes of God in allowing us to go through affliction, which I thought were well worth sharing:

1. To develop perseverance (James 1:3)
2. To manifest His faithfulness in bringing us to maturity (Hebrews 5:8-9, James 1:4)
3. To assure us of our sonship (Romans 8:17, Hebrews 12:6)
4. To prove the genuine nature of our faith (Deuteronomy 8:1-2, 1 Peter 1:7)
5. To develop humility (2 Corinthians 12:7)
6. To keep us on track (Psalm 119:67, Proverbs 3:11)
7. To deepen our insight into the heart of God (Hosea)
8. To enable us to help others in trials (2 Corinthians 1:4)
9. To reveal what we really love (Deuteronomy 13:3, Luke 14:26)
10. To display God’s glory (Genesis 50:20)

In the broadcast from August 19 on Lamentations 3:1-24, he makes the comment that “the absence of lament in contemporary evangelical Christianity is arguably one of the things that presents to the watching world a substantial sense of a Christianity that is not actually authentic.” If all that the world sees are happy, put-together, on-top-of-the world Christians, they wonder how it can possibly be real. Such a picture can alienate seekers (or even Christians) who feel they can never fit that image. But if they see people who suffer and struggle and lament and yet hold onto their faith, they may be drawn in by wondering where that perseverance comes from.

I recently read A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament, by Michael Card, who urges honesty with God, ourselves, and others in praying and saying what we truly feel. He uses the words of Job, Psalms, and Lamentations as models for our own prayers and living.

It seems to me that songs such as “Come As You Are” by Crowder stir in us an awareness that it’s okay to be broken and wounded. God doesn’t expect us to get our act together before we come to Him, but sometimes the church seems to have higher standards. The unspoken rules create walls instead of bridges: dress nicely, keep smiling, hide your problems, and never under any circumstances admit your sins, temptations, or struggles. Whether we admit it or not, we are proud people and we don’t want to give anyone reason to think less of us. I wonder how many souls have missed salvation because of the fear of going up to the altar?

I hadn’t thought of it before, but one application of Philippians 2:3 (NIV), “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves,” could be that the humility that allows us to be honest before others opens doors for them to be honest as well. And verse 4 doesn’t tell us to neglect our own needs, but implies that we are all better served by looking out for one another. Pride leads to contempt, but humility leads to honesty, openness, and healing.

Looking back over the ten purposes of affliction, I recognize some of the lessons I’ve been learning. One of the comments made by Joni Eareckson Tada in When God Weeps was that those who don’t have to endure suffering have a harder time learning some of these valuable lessons. Holding onto faith isn’t too hard when everything is going well, and easy living can give way to apathy. May we take courage to share in Christ’s sufferings (2 Corinthians 1:5), but also to know that He shares in ours (Hebrews 4:14-16)!

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience… And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:12, 14 ESV).