Pr. 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
Last week I lost a friend to suicide. How do you line that up with your faith?
Just like anything else. Keep trusting in the Lord. In this life we will have trials. Although God’s plans for us are good, we live in a sin-cursed world where disease and sin have tainted things. Sin brought in death and disease. Sin brought in meanness, evil intentions, cruelty, and poison. The life we live in this temporary place will have trials and pain, but God can turn every pain and trial around for good.
Joseph’s brother’s plotted to kill him, but instead threw him in a well and sold him into slavery. He was falsely accused of attempted rape, imprisoned, forgotten. But of all of the things that were meant for evil in his life, Joseph said, “God meant it for good to save many people.” And he was right.
This morning I was reading about all the apostles of Christ that were mocked, scourged, homeless, sawed in half, tormented, etc. (Heb. 11:32-40) It was said that they did it that they may receive a better resurrection. Paul, as well, was shipwrecked, snake-bitten, imprisoned, and had a thorn in his flesh that the Lord would not remove. The Bible says he accepted that gladly for the promise of the power of Christ upon him.
How in the world can we accept suffering, pain, or trials? How can we make it through these dark times in our lives? By trusting in the Lord with all our hearts and leaning not on our own understanding.
It doesn’t make sense to us when the pain comes. But the Word says that His ways are not our ways. Perhaps, like Joseph, He is going to make something beautiful come from our pain. Death and suffering don’t come naturally to us, but God has sent us the Comforter. God supplies for our needs. He comforts. He gives joy and peace in the storms and trials of our lives. When the storms come, He is the One in which we can take refuge.
The Lord is the One who provides the peace that surpasses all understanding which guards our hearts and minds when we pray to him in our times of anxiety. The Lord is the One who shows Himself strong for us when we remain loyal to Him. The Lord is the One whose strength is made perfect in our weakness. It is the Lord in which we need to continue to trust. He will be as faithful tomorrow as He was in the beginning. He does not change.
Thank You, Lord, for Your faithfulness, in which we can place our trust and our hope!
jamie
considering the word 