Trials still surprise me, as if the way of the cross that Jesus walked should not apply to me. I’d like to fast-forward through Good Friday and go straight to Sunday dawn.
But until this world is fully and finally set to rights, God’s people, even me and even you, must resist the lie that our lives should always be comfortable, pain-free, popular.
THE above is from the previous musing, The Path to Life. I so want to comment at length on that, even the title. But I’ll confine my comments as follows.
NOTE it is not the “of” life but the path “to” life. Think on that a moment. Often, if not always, we are caught up in the moment without thought to what or where that particular moment may be leading us to, what the objective end purpose might be.
WE often repeat the comforting words of Rom. 8:28, 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. For all that this verse proclaims, it still begs all kinds of significant and instructive questions; but there is one I usually like to ask – especially to a troubled heart looking for some kind of meaning amidst a trial or difficulty. The question is, all things – both positive and negative, and everything in between are promised here to be working together – in combination – for good; but what is that “good,” what is that purpose; is it defined to some objective end here, or is it left to our subjective assessment to define and determine?
I MOST always get a blank stare when I ask that question. After all these years I think the reason I always get that vacant look is because I believe God has truly written eternity upon on hearts (Ecc. 3:11), and deep down we know that in the end, our subjective thoughts will always come up short and bring us to an end of our selves in seeing the true picture. Yet in all this, we really do know that we are made for more. It’s at this point I love to strike with the answer and say, “Read verse 29.” …So go ahead, read verse 29.
IT is often said that we need the “big picture” if we are to have the right perspective on a thing, the right vision as to what is, was meant to be, and will be. One does not and cannot have the right perspective on Rom. 8:28 without the connecting “for” of Rom. 8:29: 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.
THIS is the objective end and purpose, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1;27). With that, here is another instructive reading from None But the Hungary Heart – 1-3, Relentless Purpose.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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1-3. Relentless Purpose
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chron. 16:9).
All of God’s thoughts concerning us are centered in His Son, where He has placed us. Hence they are “thoughts of peace, and not of evil” (Jer. 29:11). Others may do evil against us, but our Father turns it into our good, for Jesus’ sake.
“The purpose of God is that through the conditions and sufferings of my life should develop in me the features of His Son. On the one hand, the features of the old creation may be seen to be more and more terrible and horrible, as I recognize them in myself; but over against that God is doing something which is other than my old self. He is bringing into being Another, altogether other, and that is His Son, my new life. Slowly, seemingly all too slowly; nevertheless something is developing. The sonship is not very much in evidence yet, but it is going to be manifested. What God has been doing will come out into the light eventually- conformity to the image of His Son.” -T. A-S.
“Afflictions are in the hands of the Holy Spirit to effect the softening of the heart in order to receive heavenly impression. Job said, ‘God maketh my heart soft’ (Job 23:16). As the wax in its natural hard state cannot take the impress of the signet, and needs to be melted to render it susceptible, so the believer is by trials prepared to receive, and made to bear, the divine likeness.”
“Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving’’ (Col. 2:7).
