God entrusted his reputation to ordinary people. Yet in some way invisible to us, those ordinary people filled with the Spirit are helping to restore the universe to its place under the reign of God. At our repentance, the angels rejoice. By our prayers, mountains are moved.
~Philip Yancey
From Jeremiah 30… And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them….. “Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, nor be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from far away,… For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished…
Oh beloved, it is true. Punish us He does. And yet this is not to hurt us. It is, rather, to kill anything in us that is killing us and keeping us from being like Him. He takes everything away from us. For some of the most foolish of us, He has to take everything; even our names and families and health and goods and homes and rights and privileges.
Oh it hurts.
And Jeremiah continues… “For thus says the LORD: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you.
And as a Father who will, when necessary, lay the very rod of His own righteousness firmly across our backs that He might drive the foolishness bound up within us away – He shows us that He will do anything to put us into a right relationship with Himself.
Anything.
Oh Father! Help me!
And then, it is done.
Then, there is only the Voice of One weeping over the pain He has inflicted on us – and His great and gentle laughter of Love which welcomes us into His arms as our spirits finally break in repentance and call out to Him to relent. Oh how He Loves us! And then deep within us, the soft strength of His infinite power passes over and through our hearts and turns the shattered stone into soft flesh which now only beats for Him and delights in His Love.
Jeremiah is not done telling the story… Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast:…. Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
Can we see it? It is the Gospel. G_d works in the deepest and strongest ways to convince us that we must become poor in spirit. We must become convinced that there is nothing in us which can remain. He wants us empty. He wants us utterly empty. But He does not want to leave us empty. He wants to take the limited space within us and fill it with His infinite self.
So, the sin and the world and the circumstances that once tore us up, can no longer have any grip on our old self. Because the old self is no longer there. There is only Him and His goodness-at work in the clay He has beaten and molded into submission. And it is into this newly-formed vessel that He can pour the immeasurable riches of His Love and Grace and Goodness and Righteousness and Peace and Joy through the power of His Spirit.
And then, we find that the breaking and filling He has done in our lives is not really about us (though we are surely beneficiaries of the wonderful work He has done!). Rather, we find that the dual action of crushing and comforting us has the primary effect of enabling us to bring this same process to a million others – and one Day, burst into His presence as those who are fully His and will share in a renewal not yet imagined anywhere but deep within our spirit’s communion with Him.
This good news is looking better all the time beloved!
Oh this is the marvelous transaction. That we, in fact, get the Divine Life for our self life. Most of the time I'm satisfied (to a certain extent) by my self life, but The HOLE of Despair is what forced me to discover this real God whom I had surely heard about, but didn’t know, even though I was a Christian for over 30 years. So, in that sense it has been a good thing, otherwise small chance to know Him in the natural course of events (crisis is required).
All gut wrenching destroying tragedies that occur to humans in this life cause despair and we are ill equipped to deal with or recover from them. This is why there are so many ones as walking wounded with terminal wounds, with no path of recovery – Death and destroying of loved ones, jail/prison, parent-child bond destruction, betrayals, physical injury, fears-panics, financial ruin, addictions, etc. There is only one source responsible for death and destruction – Satan. And there is only one true source given to heal and provide remedy for death and destruction – Christ Jesus the Lord, He has the authority and ability to heal these extreme wounds – by my surrender of my life to Him and having Him Live His Life in me.
Here’s the revelation I see dimly: As I release–surrender everything to the Lord, and trust Him for the process and the outcome I became lighter and happy – I don’t continue to nurture and harbor my various plans, no more are thoughts and the schemes allowed to play out much – why? Because of my overarching desire to have God take my life and inhabit me for the remainder of this life. If I’m living for Him everything else will fall in line with His will. As I considered this I became happy. Sometimes I seemingly need despair so that the light can eventually come in.
Not all experience this acute wounding of soul and spirit in their lives. Similarily, not all christians experience acute wounding. Of the christians who do, still fewer of these surrender their wounds to Christ Jesus for His Life Power to work in their life. Quadriplegic Joni Earckson-Tada describes this acute wounding as a blessing. Because without the wounds she would never have known a Christ whom she can surrender all her inability and independence to and have Him be her sufficiency in every part of her life.
Men’s despair-wounds are not to be remedied by any earthly method – it is impossible. In fact, the wound is a reminder that – God must be the redeemer–healer–counselor in my life, not me – for I am inadequate to shoulder it by any resource I can lay my hands on.
Amen Glen, sounds like He has taken us through similar paths. Tozer once said, 'it is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. '