Any study of Job begins with the premise that within this book there is the answer to the age-old question, “Why do Good people Suffer?” Well beyond the truths that God-ordains it as part of his permissive will and suffering is a part of this broken world, we might feel that the answer falls short. At least in fully explaining why. God never even told Job why he had faced such suffering and loss. Yet, hidden in these pages is the richest treasure trove. There we find 7 precious promises of God. Ones that we can remember when life hurts.
These include Precious Promises of God’s Sovereignty, Love, Grace, Justice, Righteousness, Omnipotent Power, and Perfect Plan. His Will mounts higher than the farthest reaches of all the Galaxies surrounding us. He sees and executes every minute detail to bring to fruition His plan of Love, Grace, and Mercy to all whom He knows as His own. Higher than our minds can even comprehend He IS and we can trust Him. He who created us with the purpose to be loved by Him, to have a close relationship with Him, and to be showered with His joy and His Glory.
Precious Promises of God: #1
God is Sovereign and In Control: Isaiah 46:9-11
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
(For) I have purposed it;
I will also do it.
To that some would ask
So Why Did He Allow Evil?
There are multiple reasons; but let me give the one C.S. Lewis wrote.
God created things which had free will. That means creatures can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata-of creatures that worked like machines-would hardly be worth creating.
The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each in an ecstasy of love delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.[2] (C. Lewis 1952)
Can Love Be Perfect without Free Will
Without free will, we could never understand nor experience perfect love, joy, hope, or glory. Instead, we would be like robots wandering about the planet with no depth of feeling and no reasoning. Lewis goes on to say:
Of course, God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently, He thought it worth the risk. Perhaps we feel inclined to disagree with Him. But there is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all your reasoning power comes: you could not be right, and He wrong any more than a stream can rise higher than its own source. When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on.
If God thinks this state of war in the universe a price worth paying for free will—that is, for making a live world in which creatures can do real good or harm and something of real importance can happen, instead of a toy world which only moves when He pulls the strings—then we may take it is worth paying.[3] (C. Lewis 1952)
Precious Promises of God #2: God Loves You
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Willingly He provided the payment so that we might know Him.
Romans 5:8 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We will never fully understand the cost to Himself to love us; that is, until one day we stand before Him and perhaps not even then.
Precious Promises of God #3: God limits our suffering
I Corinthians 10: 12-14
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to [a]bear it.
Precious Promises of God #4: He Never Leaves Us
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Romans 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus said:
“19 Go [a]therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” [b]Amen.
Precious Promises of God #5: He Brings Blessings to Us In Our Suffering
Romans 8: 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
Precious Promises of God #6 He will be with us in our suffering
2 Corinthians 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any [a]trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our [b]consolation also abounds through Christ.
Psalm 34: 17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as [a]have a contrite spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Precious Promises #7: All things work together for our Good
Romans 8: 26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession [g]for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Therefore, even when I do not understand, I trust Him. Because ultimately all that He does is
For Our Joy and His Glory
Jonathan Edwards presents the argument that ultimately the existence of evil in this world was necessary for both our joy and God’s Glory. Before balking at this thought, I ask you to read thoroughly His argument. I will let it stand upon its own merits. Of all the defenses, this one was the one that shone light into my heart during many years of suffering. It provided me with a deeper understanding of my suffering and ultimately lead me to rejoice, even in my suffering.
A CASE for GOD’S GLORY AND OUR JOY
It is a proper and excellent thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God’s glory be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent (=radiant), that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all….
Thus, it is necessary, that God’s awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God’s glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faith without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.
If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God’s holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God’s grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness so ever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired, and the sense of it not so great….
So, evil is necessary,
in order to the highest happiness of the creature and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature’s happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect.[1] (Edwards 1974)
Therefore, all that He does is for us—to maximize our joy one day.
Therefore, When Life Hurts, Cling to the Precious Promises of God
He will show you the way and lead you to your expected end of Joy if you will but trust Him.
Due to the rebellion of the nation of Israel, they were sent into captivity. But remember it was not all the people. There were those who were faithful as well. Daniel was one of those. He read these words in Jeremiah and His heart leapt with joy and hope.
Jeremiah 29:10 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you,and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR AND LORD?
If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord: I urge you to go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. There is nothing more important than this; because He is the way, the truth and the life. Therefore, I urge you to seek Him today.
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©Effie Darlene Barba, 2021
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. Furthermore, I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Credits
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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