From today’s devo:
“He wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal.”
-Job 5:18“We want a god who will always give us what we want and will never teach us hard lessons…..But God’s hand, though always good, isn’t always easy. He takes through not only joys and comfort, but also pain….The godly life is joyful but painful.
…Did you think the Christian life was going to be without pain? No. Look at Jesus, Look at His disciples..Or, closer to home, look at the headlines…No, the Christian life is by no means without pain. It can’t be, not if it’s real and if it exists in a hostile world, and not if we’re going to be like Jesus. But neither is it without comfort and healing. That’s why we can worship the God who wounds as well as the God who restores. He knows what He is doing; He is preparing us for glory.”
Two points that really jump out at me today:
1) God gives and takes
This is kinda in relation to my last devo a few days ago about the “Artist’s Integrity.” God is a being who gives and takes, and we are nothing but dust (quite literally). God is also a just God who won’t hesitate on walking you through painful things in our lives. But I sincerely believe that he will never push you too far because he is just, and he is always good to us. God gives and takes, he wounds and heals. We can’t learn, we can’t grow unless we make mistakes, nor can we learn from our mistakes unless they are pointed out to us.
2) The misconception of the ‘perfect’ Christian life
I think all too often (among both Christian and non-Christians) we believe that living a Christian life will mean as long as we believe in Christ we will life a happy life filled with flowers and rainbows (or something of that sort), void of anything painful. I think I find this even more common among those who are new believers or the recently baptized (I’m guilty of such thoughts too btw). But as the passage above shows, and as various accounts in the bible show. The Christian life was never meant to be easy. It’s simply impossible in a fallen world like ours where nothing is perfect. And I really do mean nothing (even more so in the era we live in where it seems our lives are more dysfunctional than ever), though we as humans are very good at making it seem like things are better than they really are.
Our lives aren’t perfect, far from it. But I believe what does make our lives different from others is that we (as Christians) have this weird (kinda? haha) ability to live joyously through pain because well…to put it simply:
“GOD IS GOOD! ALL THE TIME!”
But this ability isn’t usually something that we gain overnight or at the moment we decide Christ is real. Rather, it’s something we’ve grown to realize in our walks with God. For some sooner than others, but I believe it can happen. To live a joyous life (I say ‘joyous’ and not ‘happy’), knowing that there’s a big guy (God) up there looking out for me, even through the really hard times.
I pray that I never forget his love and goodness when rough times come.