GOD'S STRANGE MINISTRIES: The Ministry of Silence
How God Ministers to Us Through the Challenges of Life
Hebrews 11:32-40; Romans 8:28-29; Genesis 25-32; Philippians 1
The other side of the abundant life
So often, when faced with the pain associated with the problems of life, whether physical, emotional, social or spiritual, something deep inside cries “unfair!” or “unacceptable!” and pleads for the quick fix, no pain, instant, and complete solution.
Unfortunately, this same response is often applied to the Christian life. Christians too, want to believe that all problems can be somehow miraculously solved, unacceptable situations can be deleted from life, and all pain done away with. All that is needed is to pray this prayer, attend that seminar, sit under the teaching of that preacher, utter these incantations, or confess these beliefs. People love to hear about the victorious Christian life, but don't have the same passion to learn about the prevailing Christian life. To satisfy the cry of the masses, Christian speakers, counsellors, writers and commentators have so laced their communication with stories of victory where problems have been solved, situations reversed, and pain eradicated, that they have placed their hearer in a state of “cognitive dissonance” - an uncomfortable and confusing realization that apparently contradicting beliefs may be simultaneously true. These could be summarized as:
· Life does hand out problems, present unacceptable scenarios, and cause pain (truth in reality), and
· God can solve our problems, change circumstance, and heal our hurts (truth in theology).
When Christians in pain have exercised their perceived solution, but God does not seem to respond - when He is silent or allows darkness to prevail, the resultant response is so often one of the following:
· To change beliefs about God and the world,
· To distort reality to fit intransigent beliefs whether true or not
· To discount God's involvement in life and totally take over running life
· To look for someone to blame other than God
Sadly, in these times, there is little objectivity to allow for a totally different perspective about problems, circumstances and pain, which allows apparent contradictions to coexist. To further complicate the process, much of the anecdotal material about the “overcomers” of life - those who overcame problems, circumstances and pain - fails to give due weight to the private struggles of those people. The flip side of their story of frustration, hopelessness, struggle, and pain is deleted, leaving us with a distorted view of reality, theology, life stages, and progressive growth (read all of Hebrews 11). In our lifetime we write two books. One is the book of dreams about our preferred future. The other is written as our life actually catches our future - and it is the book of reality, which outlines our actual experiences and accomplishments. Any similarity between the two is purely coincidental. So often God catches us off guard, keeps us off balance, doesn't work in our lives how we would desire or expect. We often confess with Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it!” (Genesis 28:16) Just as we seem to get things together, they all fall apart. Just as things seem hopeless, they work out.
God's agenda in our lives is growth into Christ-likeness (Romans 8:28-29), not absence of problems, removal of difficult circumstances, and deletion of pain. For these things are the catalysts necessary for real growth, if handled God's way. God has an ongoing “strange ministry” in our lives, which if understood and cooperated with, will produce Christ-likeness in us. Praise God! Matthew Henry stated it well when he said, “The God of Israel, the Saviour, is sometimes a God that hides Himself but never a God that is absent; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.”
Our toughest battles are with God
The principles of God's dealings with us are clearly found in the story of Jacob (Genesis 25-32). Jacob wrestles with a man who actually turns out to be God - and the struggle went on in the silence, in the dark, throughout the night until daybreak. This is a picture of how God deals with His people to grow them to Christ-likeness. (Genesis 32:24-32) What God commenced in our lives at salvation, He will continue to completion. (Philippians 1:6) There is no single, once-and-for-all life-changing event that will keep us close to Him. The problems and decisions of life are worked out over time, thus necessitating God's ministry in our lives over a lifetime. Jacob ran for more than 20 years, but on this particular night God overtook Jacob, wrestled him so he could run no longer, and brings him into voluntary submission. The picture here is of an aggressive God who pursues those committed to Him and continues a work of transformation to Christ-likeness. Underneath we are all rebels, we all have desperately wicked hearts, we all are deceitful - we are all like Jacob. God uses all kinds of strange ministries in our lives to bring us into conformity with the likeness of Jesus Christ. These ministries include silence, suffering, pain, circumstances, depression and temptation. When we come to faith, God promises us each His love. His grace guides us, positions us, protects us, exposes us, shakes us up - all to bring about ongoing transformation to Christ-likeness despite our rebellion, our lack of resolve, our self-centredness and our double-mindedness.
We so often throw away our blessings
The greatest flaw of human beings is that we believe we can accurately interpret every event and experience in our lives. Kings sometimes come dressed as beggars, and blessings dressed as curses, and we sometimes entertain angels unaware. It would be nice to be able to look ahead in time and know what experiences will lead to growth and which will not.
The principle: the very thing I am wrestling against may be the very thing God wants to use to bless me.
· Faith is much more than power to change things for the better. Our world, including the church, is too obsessed with power. The power and glory of the resurrection comes through the weakness and foolishness of the cross (Hebrews 2:10).
· The faith of many Christians today is big on escaping rather than being big on enduring. If we can change things for the better, then do it. If we cannot, accept - for within, may well be the path to greater maturity, deeper spirituality, and increased faith.
· Faith is not only the power to see things differently and cause change, but also: the wisdom to see treasure in trash, the courage to face things as they are, not as we wish them to be, the boldness to embrace those difficult things and say, “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” thus making our greatest weakness our greatest blessing. Then, and only then, do these things become fuel for our journey and construction material for building a Christ-like life.
Good and bad run on the same parallel tracks and usually arrive at the same time
Jacob found blessing from the angel at the same time as being permanently disabled through a wounded hip. Good and bad were both his simultaneously. Rather than viewing life as supposedly being predominantly good seasoned with brief periods of problems, pain and difficult circumstances, it should be viewed as a continual path of growth through both good and bad situations that run parallel throughout life. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
The ministry of silence - living without answers
Whilst we as Christians can celebrate God's goodness to us, His protection of us, His healing and his intervention in our lives, and from time to time even His overt miracles, we still ask the question “Why?” when we find that God hasn't provided as we want. If there is no answer to the “Why?” question, then perhaps a better question is “What now?” God made it quite clear to Job that the “Why?” of his suffering did not have to be known, but the issue for him was “What now?” Was Job going to drop his bundle and cease to live, or stand up, face life, and get on with it, being assured of God's ongoing presence and blessing, and promise of restitution?
Application
Recognize:
· God, in love and grace, uses the problems, pain and difficult circumstances of life to create Christ-likeness in us
· God wants us to develop a prevailing, as well as a victorious, Christian life and this is developed through rightly handling the tough times of life
· Our toughest battles are often with God, for we fail to appreciate what He is really doing in us through the tough times
· So often, we throw away God's greatest blessings when we too readily label the tough times as bad and prosperous times as good. Good and bad run simultaneously throughout life and can only be separated accurately over time. Faith is required to trust God amidst life struggles.
· God's best work is often done in our lives when we least want it done and when we least cooperate with God
· Faith has more to do with enduring rather than escaping. It has much to do with wisdom, courage, boldness in the face of difficulty, and recognition of God's sufficiency in our weakness
· We must focus less on the question “Why?” - which can never be fully answered, and more on the question “What now?” - which is the basis of God's intervention, His blessing, and hope.
· Miracles associated with God's intervention into the pain, the suffering and the challenges of life, can be seen in the ordinary provisions of life, if we take the time to really look.
· In the silence and darkness of life's pain, suffering and challenges, be prepared to wrestle with God, have your life challenged and changed, and be permanently marked by God as a sign of His ongoing work of transformation and ownership of your life.
For Reflection and Discussion
1. What situations have you faced that have involved significant pain, suffering, challenges, and disappointments?
2. How did you handle these situations?
3. How was Christ-likeness furthered in your life as a result?
4. Explain the difference between the questions “Why?” and “What now?” in relation to pain, challenges, sufferings and disappointments?
5. How can the question “What now?” assist a person in pain, suffering, or facing challenges and disappointments gain hope and actually move ahead?
6. Read Romans 8:18-39. What encouragement does this passage give to us all regardless of situation?
7. Carefully study your note outline - particularly the summary points under Application, and make comment about each principle outlined.
8. How could you apply this message to your life at this time?