It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. In every cloud he brings, God wants us to unlearn something. God’s purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to him is exactly that of a child. God uses every cloud which comes in our physical life, in our moral or spiritual life, or in our circumstances, to bring us nearer to him, until we come to the place where our Lord Jesus Christ lived, and we do not allow our hearts to be troubled.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
~ Psalm 16
Oh beloved, it is true.
We serve an infinite G_d. He is unchanging. He is trans-temporal. He is able in all ways, in all places, in all times, to make all things work together for good. These are truths that are true regardless of our feelings… And this is where things get even better.
The natural mind can categorize things fairly well. We engineers and teachers and others can slice what we see, into smaller pieces. We can look at things and identify what they are. However, lower order thinking skills are not what are needed to get us where we need to be, when it comes to the beginning of comprehending our Jesus.
However, what we have, is a problem actually comprehending many truths. We especially have trouble comprehending the infinite truths of Scripture.
Can we see it? It is subtle.
Look at the passage. Psalm 16 is the very prayer of Jesus, somewhere between His death on the cross, and His eternal resurrection as King of The Universe. Jesus had committed His entire Spirit into the keeping of the Father. As in the same moment, His sacrifice crushed the enemy, and made death irrelevant to those who would but trust in Christ.
And, to put it bluntly: Jesus had just been through one hell of a time.
But, can we see the response? Gorgeous. Beautiful beyond words.
“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.”
Keep looking… Ask Him to show you…
Jesus got bigger through dying.
How?
He got you. And… He got me.
The very infinite unending Creator of existence itself, the Triune One with absolutely no need whatsoever, and the very inhabitor of eternity; the One Who is bigger than any definition of big, inherited a family of billions of brothers and sisters forever.
Stop beloved… Don’t run past this. Jesus was not just victorious over sin and death in His death. Jesus even overran His our limitless boundaries in His work on the cross. Said more simply: The infinite got bigger. The walls of separation across anywhere in creation were torn down. And, Jesus is made even better by having you (and this fool of a writer) in His eternal family.
So, are you facing problems? We all do. Our King/Brother/Husband/Captain/Friend/Savior/Lord has gone through them too. But, if we are willing to see it. The biggest problem ever, was solved through the greatest suffering ever experienced. And in this too, Jesus took on the very limits of His own infinity – and beat them too.
Tonight is your night. Time to believe Jesus is bigger.
When compassed about on every side with tribulations, remember that it is the way of the saints, through which they passed to the kingdom of heaven. Learn to comfort thyself also, because that in this thou art made like unto Christ Jesus, thy Lord; and return thanks, if thou art in any small degree able to repay this to him. For I say unto thee that it is a greater merit in thee to suffer affliction patiently than to perform good works.
~Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471)
