It’s easy to give Him the glory when it’s good.It’s easy to claim a blessing when the blessings are there to count.
But in the pain? In the dark? In the mourning? In the need?
What do we say then?
Do we say that the need is because of what we did?
Do we say that the hurt is because of what we didn’t do?
Do we say that if we just do something good then the blessings will flow again?
What if the hurt, the sorrow, the grief, the want…what if that is the blessing?
What if the “bad” and the hard is from the hand of God?
What if He strips away every earthly thing?
Could we still say thank you?
Could we still count His blessings?
Would we trust Him enough to say, when every other thing is taken, that He is still enough?
Or would we, angry, to try figure out what to do to get God to bless us? Or forgetting the blessing, would we try to just stop the pain? But just maybe the pain is the blessing…we just don’t see it.
And seeing blessing in the pain and the broken wouldn’t make the pain less painful or make the broken whole again. So we see just the hurt and a God who’s hand hasn’t stopped the hurt from coming.
And it doesn’t make sense.
I heard it as a child. He said that…
“What God means as a test, Satan uses as a temptation. And what Satan means as a temptation, God uses as a test.”
Jon Courson
So is it a temptation from Satan or a test from God?
Is it a trial from the pit of hell or a gracious lesson from our Heavenly Father?
And I’ve learned to ask…does it matter?
Does it really matter?
Because the God of truth has promised…
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
Because the Source of Truth has promised…
“…that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28 {emphasis mine}
So much of this life will never make sense to us.
But we have the promise of heaven. Where there is no more pain or broken.
Somewhere along the line we must take a stand that no matter how much hurt He send to us, no matter how much breaking our hearts and lives endure…that He is still good.
And we’ll never truly know that He is good until against all the hurt and sorrow we see in our lives, we choose to believe it and live it anyways.
Because the pain will still be painful and the broken will still be broken but He will still be good. And somehow He promises that He can still be good when nothing else is. And somehow He says that we can live in peace and pain, joy and hurt together when we choose to live in and believe on His goodness.
And it doesn’t make sense when our hearts seem to pound themselves to death with the pain and the hurt.
But it’s true.
And there’s a point where we have to admit what we feel and yet still choose to believe what is true even when we don’t know it and can’t see it anymore.
Because He is good…even in the pain and the broken.
He is good.
He is good.
So does it matter where it comes from?
Not always. What matters is that He is good.
Be blessed
<3
{NOTE: This post was prescheduled while I am on a 9 day missions trip in Mexico. I would truly appreciate your prayers for myself and the rest of the team. For more information about the trip you can read here.}
