It's Your Choice

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When I (we) are in difficult, painful situations, we all have a choice to make. Will we allow Jesus to comfort us, or will we accuse him of being either inept or uninterested because he did not intervene to keep what caused our pain from happening? I know for me I often times do the latter. I accuse God all the time for being inept and not interested in answering my prayers. Just the other night I told my wife that God is not going to answer my prayers. We have been praying for some things for years, even since we have gotten married 8 years ago. NO ANSWERS. I often then doubt if I am even in God’s will or totally out in left field some place.

Apparently, this has been happening since the beginning of time as recorded in the Bible. The main one that sticks out in my mind is:

John 11:36-37: The people who were standing near by said, “See how much he loved him.” But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Why couldn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”

See, even Jesus’ friends doubted him and his power. If Jesus was so powerful and he and Lazarus are friends, why did he let him die? They thought as I do, is God not interested or as powerful as he says he is?
I believe that all of us during painful and difficult times have asked a question like that one. With pain in our hearts, we ask, if God really loves us and is in control, then why doesn’t he just come and rescue us?
To be honest with you, I believe that there is an answer to that question. The reality is that sometimes life hurts. In fact it can hurt pretty badly. I know most of us have been or are currently in situations that has caused us personal pain. Get this: we can be rest assured that we will experience such situations again. The only hope we can have is that someday Jesus will take us into his presence for eternity, he will rescue us from all pain and grief; but as long as we are on this earth, WE WILL SUFFER along with the rest of mankind.
We need to remember that Jesus is intimately acquainted with the brokenness of the world we all live in and deeply concerned with the way it affects each of us. And we need to understand that while Jesus won’t always rescue us from the things that cause us pain and hurt, he will always be at our side during those times, giving us comfort. He even brings others into our lives that listen to, pray for, and help us through these rough patches. Jesus is all about bringing us closer to him and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

You may be thinking that I write about a lot of downer issues, but simply I share what I am going through and those close to me are going through. When I write it encourages me to lift my eyes up to our maker and creator. I learn new things and get a re-cap on things I have once learned but have forgotten. When I meet Christians who are always joyful, happy, and everything is always going good in their lives, it’s something to me that is not a reality in my life. Anyway that’s my rant.

In Closing, I just want to say that when we suffer we lose once. But when we turn bitter or blame God, we lose again. Knowing that, the question we each need to ask ourselves is, “How many times will I lose?” Nobody likes to lose because losing stinks! Change your thinking and change your life! It’s your choice……

Lord, teach me to never lose twice in a painful situation.

As always,
Will LeMieux
aka Scootman