Skip to main content

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

It has been a long weekend.  Besides the usual responsibilities of preaching on Sunday, I had the wedding of a couple from my former church to perform.  In the midst of all that, we were in negotiations for the sale of our house.  After bartering back and forth over the price, on Saturday we came to a verbal agreement.  Late in the morning Monday, my wife phoned the buyers to ask them if they had talked to their lawyer yet.  At that point they informed her that they had bought another house.  They hadn't even bothered to phone us and let us know.  Then last night, at 2:30 a.m. my brother-in-law went in to emergency with pneumonia.

Now I am not telling you all this so you can pour pity on our family.  I am rehearsing this because I want to state without a shadow of reservation that I believe I am still where God wants me to be.  Often when we are faced with adversity in life, we begin to question whether God is displeased with us or whether we have somehow misread the will of God for our lives.  After all, we are living in an age in evangelicalism where the preaching of health, wealth and prosperity are at an all-time high.  Even those who are less overt in this message still proclaim that "God has a wonderful plan for your life."

Well, I do believe that God has a wonderful plan for my life, but it probably is not wonderful in the way that most of us expect.  The wonderful part is the salvation He has granted me and the eternal life He has promised me.  Here and now - not so much.  Jesus didn't candy-coat his depictions of life for Christians in this world.  He said there would be trouble (Matt. 5:11-12; John 15:20-25).  Things have been quiet for Christians for so long here in North America that we have forgotten that we are the exception not the rule.  Trouble is the norm - quiet is the exception. 

Furthermore, we still live in a world cursed by the effects of sin.  As long as there is sin present in this world there will be trials and difficulties.  Becoming a Christian does not give one a get out of jail free card.  We too bear the consequences of the sin in our world.  We get sick.  We have troubles.  We die.

And guess what.  All of these "bad" things can happen to us and we can still be absolutely and securely in the centre of the will of God.  In fact, our God's will is so great and powerful that He even turns those "bad" things for good in our lives.  Am I discouraged? - you bet.  Am I frustrated? - absolutely.  Am I questioning God's will for my life? Not in the slightest.  My God is sufficient to make even these frustrations good for his children.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Families' Fridays

From Focus on the Family 10 helpful tips for single parents Imagine this: you’re the sole parent for your children. You get them up, get them fed and send them to school. You do the housework, maybe you go to work yourself, you get home and you’re still the only adult there. There’s no one to relieve you. No one to pass the baton to while you take a shower or take a few minutes for yourself. You make dinner and gather the family around the table to eat. You play with them, read to them, give them baths, get them to bed and there’s no one there to sit with and process your day. There’s no one there to laugh with you or pray with you. Instead you keep working. You clean up the house again. You pack lunches for the next day. And you eventually crash into bed, knowing you’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow. For many, this is not an imagined scenario. When you parent alone – whether due to divorce, the loss of your spouse or having a spouse who works away from home for long periods of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Death For a Believer

We picture death as coming to destroy; let us rather picture Christ as coming to save. We think of death as ending; let us rather think of life as beginning, and that more abundantly. We think of losing; let us think of gaining. We think of parting; let us think of meeting. We think of going away; let us think of arriving. And as the voice of death whispers,  "You must go from earth," Let us hear the voice of Christ saying, "You are but coming to me."   Norman Macleod
Post a Comment
Read more

Let Me Introduce

It is almost a joke to imagine I am introducing John MacArthur Jr. to you.  In our circles of evangelicalism his is a well known name.  He has spoken at the national convention of our Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists on at least three different occasions.  However, the last of these was almost twenty years ago.  I believe that is because we have changed as a Fellowship and have strayed from the message that Dr. MacArthur preaches.  Dr. MacArthur has served his congregation since 1969.  That, in itself, should commend this man's message to us. As a pastor, I appreciate his commitment to the expository preaching of the Bible.  He has published an entire New Testament commentary set based upon his faithful preaching of the text.  I have never met this man personally, but I have appreciated him laying down a faithful path which younger men, like myself, have been able to follow. Grace to You  
Post a Comment
Read more