Suffering

What should be our automatic response to suffering? Prayer. (see James 5.13)

But what is our usual response to suffering?

• Complaining
• Anger
• Worry
• Seeking a quick fix
• Repairing grievances


But James suggests that we ought to pursue God. Take your complaints, anger, worry, fixes, grievances, to the one who is in charge!

How often have you said, when you are mistreated by some business, “Let me speak to your superior!” You want to talk to someone higher up to get some suffering to stop. Not a bad idea when you think about it. If a credit card company is not treating you fairly, talk to the boss and often you can make some progress. The person in charge may respond to your complaint. The first contact person can only follow the rules. They are given instructions on how to deal with difficulties and have no authority to bend or circumvent those rules. But a supervisor often does have that right and ability.

So maybe our problem when we suffer is not that we are complaining, but that we are complaining to the wrong person. Maybe we just need to go higher.

When we are suffering, we are to go to the highest court in the land. We are to take our suffering and all it involves, to the throne of God and find grace to help in time of need.

Recent blog: Anxiety

A few weeks ago I blogged about being through with worrying about the past and fearing the future. Since then, I've been kicked in the pants with both! Guess I'm "not" through with both!

It was as though God was saying, "So, you think you got this down?". And then everywhere I turned I was faced with anxiety. I had either done something stupid or anticipating some disaster.

Thank God that He is a patient Parent who grows us up, gradually.

Sacrifice as an expression of Gratitude

God gives us everything! We are indebted to Him for all creation and all sustaining of that creation. He asks a very small portion of his gift to us in return. This token is representative of His total gifts, but He takes it very seriously!

This is illustrated in Lev. 5.14-19 where sacrifice is to be made for failing to give God His Holy portion in worship.

We all know the disdain and disgust we feel for the unappreciative, spoiled, presumptuous attitudes of a child.

We’ve seen children making demands of parents. We’ve cringed at the actions of Dudley in Harry Potter, on the occasion of his birthday. "But there were more presents last year!"

But I have a daughter, Cait, who shows appreciation for the smallest of gifts. A couple weeks ago she was buying 3 books and was lacking some change to be able to pay the tax. I paid it for her and got a hug and a "thank you, Daddy"! Another day she bought me a soda!

We can either be like Dudley, or we can be like Cait!

When we hold back or give resentfully we are not only denying God what little token he asks, but we are ignoring the fact that it’s all His anyway!

What does it cost to give something of love to God or our neighbor...only what God has given us in the first place!

Let’s pray for each other to be able to recognize opportunities to give to God worshipfully, whether it be directly to Him or to our family and neighbors.

...and another thing the Lord is teaching me.

I'm much more valuable than I ever imagined...but I'm not near as important.

Anxiety

I've come to the conclusion that I have wasted too much energy regretting the past, both recent and distant. I have a capacity to cringe when I remember some dumb thing I said or did, whether it be 20 years ago or 20 minutes ago. It makes me tired and represents a lack of trust.

I've also come to the conclusion that I have wasted too much energy worrying about the future. A future that, by definition, hasn't happened yet! What's the point of that? Why worry about something that hasn't even happened?

I'm done with both.

My God offers forgiveness for the past and hope for the future. That is where I choose to rest.

Redemption and Atonement before Devotion and Worship

The book of Leviticus opens with a detailed description of how burnt offerings were to be administrated. These were offerings to atone for each man’s sinful nature (as opposed to guilt offerings that covered specific sins). On the heels of these instructions regarding burnt offerings follows a detailed description of how grain offerings were to be administrated. Grain offerings were not offered for redemption or atonement (Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin, Heb. 9.22). Rather, they were offered to demonstrate or represent a heart totally devoted to God in worship. Grain offerings reflected the realization that God provided all of our needs (redemption, food, clothing, shelter, and life itself). Unlike the burnt offerings, grain offerings were the product of hard labor and required the offerer to provide, not only the best of his grain and all the hard work that went into making it “choice flour”, but the addition of oil, and frankincense.
There is the picture: Worship, devotion, hard labor for God follows redemption and atonement. If we get this backwards, it will not be a “sweet smelling aroma” to God.

That smells good!

Revelation 8:4
And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.

Our prayers smell good to God. They are sweet smelling aroma. God takes pleasure in our conversations. My children, Seth and Caitlin, and I have, from time to time, wonderfully meaningful conversations regarding who God is, what He has done, and what he is doing. It is terrific! But I suspect that only now is my son (a new father) beginning to appreciate the fact that I enjoy talking to him about most anything. Some day my daughter will learn the same thing. They are my children and I delight in them and in what they are doing, thinking, and feeling. It ‘smells good’ to just commune with my children. If I, being evil, know how to find pleasure in the presence of my children, how much more does the Heavenly Father find pleasure in my coming to Him just to talk!