The problem of pain

I don’t think that I have one friend who has not at some stage of in life asked “why?”. Why did this happen? Why does it hurt so much? Many books have been written on pain and suffering and why it exists in the world and I recently read another one. I’m not going to suggest that I have the answer to it all and I’m not sure if anyone really has the perfect answer as each situation is different, but I’m going to offer a thought that will hopefully be encouraging.

When God created man, He gave him free will. We can thus choose to do what we want to do on this earth, but of course carry the consequences as well. God desires to have a real relationship with us and for a relationship to be real there must be a choice to love each other. God did not want to create robots and force them to love Him. God has already shown His love to us, but it is the choice of each person whether or not to reciprocate this love. God took this chance by allowing Jesus to die so that each person can be in a relationship with Him, but God has no guarantee that each person will eventually choose Him and consequently many people has rejected Him.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom 5:8

Instead people have chosen to follow their own selfish desires of greed, lust, envy and power leading to betrayal, adultery, anger, murder, oppression, strife, rivalry, slander and any other action imaginable to obtain more of what they desire. God has not made man to be evil, but made man with a choice and whether he chooses good or evil, it’s his choice. Unfortunately every action mentioned above will inflict pain and suffering on a person as a result of someone else’s actions. It was not God’s intention to expose the world to pain and suffering, but Adam and Eve had a choice and they chose to bring evil into the world by listening to Satan and betraying God.

God cannot just remove evil from the world as this would leave man without free will and choice, but what He can do is send someone who can identify with us in all our pain and suffering and eventually take us to heaven where there are no more tears of pain and suffering. Jesus can identify with each one of us in every way and can comfort us and carry us through any situation. He went through it all so that He can be it all for us in our time of need. There is no pain or suffering that He cannot relate to and He thus knows how you feel.

“For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Romans 4:15-16

Jesus endured the cross in order for Him to become our hope in our darkest hours. God will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus was left alone at the cross, crushed and forsook so that we can never be left alone, crushed or forsaken by God. He has once and for all reconciled us to God and no one can separate us from Him.

Be encouraged and know that God is with you and that Jesus knows exactly what you are going through and He is here to comfort you. He has no intention of leaving you to walk this road on your own even if it means carrying you through the darkest hours. “But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12:9  

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Psalm 23:4

Song: You never let go - Matt Redman

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Receive beauty for ashes

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“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.

He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favour has come and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,

a joyous blessing instead of mourning,

festive praise instead of despair.

In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.” Isaiah 61:1-3

Isaiah is proclaiming of the One who is to come, Jesus, and that one day He will be all that the verses above announce Him to be. We see this prophesy fulfilled in Luke 4:18. Where Jesus reads the exact scripture from the scroll and says to the people: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”. It was customary for the Jews to read from the scrolls each Sabbath in the temple and the people would take turns in reading from the scrolls. They would continue reading in the scroll at the place where the last person ended. Luke tells the story of how it was Jesus’s turn to read from the scroll in the synagogue that day.

God’s timing was perfect as Jesus had no way of orchestrating the reading of scripture so that He would end up reading that specific scripture which would reveal to the people who He truly is. This was the first time in Jesus’s life where He proclaimed to the people that He is the Messiah and the people knew exactly what He meant as they have been waiting for the Messiah to come.  

As the Messiah, He has come to do the things listed in the verses above and more. He has come to take away the poverty, the broken hearts, captivity and mourning which you have received from this world. He has come to give beauty where there are ashes, joy where there is mourning and praise where there is despair. He has come to establish His people in righteousness like great oak trees, planted to proclaim His glory.

So I ask these questions today: Where in your life do you have ashes (burnt down hopes and dreams or mistakes you have made), mourning and despair? Where are you in need of freedom? Ask God today to give you hope in the places where you lost it all. Do not give up. Jesus has already made to you this promise that He will freely give to all who ask and receive. Do not hold on today to the ashes of the world, but give it to Jesus and receive beauty. Jesus has come to set the captives free.

Maybe you have lost a friend, parent or child? Maybe you have lost your job, health, honour or reputation?

“Instead of shame and dishonour, you will enjoy a double share of honour. You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land and everlasting joy will be yours.” Isaiah 61:7

Do not let Satan convince you that all has been lost, stolen or beyond repair, God restores with a DOUBLE portion all that has been stolen from you and nothing is impossible for Him. Jesus says: “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” John 16:24

Dance with me - Jesus Culture  

But the greatest of these is love



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“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

            Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

            Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”1 Corinthians 13

There is nothing stronger than love. That’s why God describes Himself as love in 1 John 4:9. He could have called Himself “power”, “success”, “freedom”, “truth” etc, but He chose to be called “God is love.” God is all the things mentioned above and more, but He chose to be love. This is so powerful! To think that love is not just an emotion or an act, it is an actual person and when you meet Him, His loves changes you. It’s like a powerful drug and you keep wanting more and more.

The closer you walk to His love, the less power everything else in your life has over you. Addictions have to leave, unforgiveness becomes forgiveness, anger becomes kindness and the list goes on. And the beauty of it all is that we do not have to do a single thing to earn it. We just come, we just come to Him with a willing heart and His love just changes us.

He finds us in our need and in our brokenness, in our sadness, hurt and honesty, He comes with gentleness and He freely gives. His love heals, it restores and it multiplies. 1 John 4:19 says: “We love, because He first loved us.” We have no idea what love is before we experience His love and only then we can go and share what He pours into us with others. We are filled with His love everyday so that what we have can overflow into the lives of others.

Love is not just a candlelight dinner and a bunch of roses, it “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and it never ends, never tires and never runs out. Sometimes love does not look like the “fluffy love” we imagine. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 and this is what love looks like. It is to lay your life down for a friend. Even if you were the only person on earth, God still would have put Jesus on the cross, because God is love.

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:14-19          

Even when I am faithless?!

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Friends! Please know today that God has not forgotten about you. He knows where you are in life and what is bothering you. He thinks about you more times than you can count and His plans for you are more than you could ever imagine!

You might say: “but I don’t care about God” or “I don’t think about God much anymore” or “I’ve never heard Him speak”, but this does not mean that he does not care about you, think about you and want to speak to you. What you DO cannot change WHO God is, not now and not ever.

Regardless of whether or not you have ever believed in God, the Bible says:

“The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.” (2Tim 2:11-13)

Just because you find yourself in a place where you are faithless, does not mean that God will now lose faith in you. He is faithfulness and He can never deny who He is. It is impossible for God to be unfaithful. Every promise that He has spoken over you will not return to Him void. (Isa 55:11) Do not feel discouraged, because you are feeling faithless, God has still got you in His hand, His plans are still for you and He will direct your steps.  “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)

If you find yourself in a space where you have denied God, do not be anxious, turn around and come to Him. He will not turn you away! This is so beautiful, the Bible says: “So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance" Luke 15:3-7

Every day I pray that there will be another party in heaven because another child came home. It’s not too late to join the party, open your heart and let Love find you.

We cry out - awesome song!