How Will You Respond?
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord works out everything for His own ends…”
As I was taking my wife Michelle to the Emergency Room last night, I became very angry with the Lord. See, since we started dating, we have experienced one affliction after another; and once we got married, the amount of afflictions did not increase, but the intensity of them did. It has just been one affliction after another and last night I finally lost it. “Lord, this doesn’t make any sense!” I cried out. “Why would You allow this? What is the purpose of all of this? There is no point to it at all!”
Now, I was fully aware of all the scripture that explains why trials and afflictions are allowed into our lives, and I know that there are many people who are far much worse off than Michelle and I, but in that moment it wasn’t about anything else, it was only about me and the concern for my wife. It was about my lack of perspective and understanding.
The next morning, as I was reading through Proverbs, I came across this verse. “The Lord works out everything for His own ends…” It was then that I was reminded that God is not here to serve me, but rather I am here to serve God. I was reminded that I freely gave my life to Him on April 22, 2000, and along with that, the right to do whatever He wants to do in my life, good or bad. But Wednesday night, I forgot these things and completely lost perspective of the Master/slave, Father/son, Lord/servant relationship.
The King James Version translates this verse like this, “The LORD hath made all things for Himself.” The word “Himself” is a bizarre word. It is the Hebrew word Ma’aneh, which means “answer or response”. So, “The Lord works out everything for a response from us to Him. How will we respond to God concerning salvation, trials, afflictions, etc. Will we respond in a prideful manner and reject Him, curse Him, bash Him, turn our backs on Him…or, will we respond in humility and surrender our lives to Him, receive salvation, and in trials, like Job, respond in such a way as “Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.” Job 13:15
The thing about that night was that I allowed my circumstances to change who God was in my mind; and the thing is, God never changes! He is good in all things at all times; the problem is that we are so limited in our vision and understanding that we cannot see the great and wonderful purpose that God has for us, even in times of affliction.
One of my favorite verses regarding this is Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” The phrase “work together” has the reference of someone mixing ingredients together to make a finished product, like making a cake for instance. You take eggs, flour, sugar, salt, etc., and you mix them all together to make this wonderful product. It is the same with our lives. God takes all of these different life situations, good and bad, and He mixes them all together to make this great finished product…the man (or woman) of God that He wants us to be…that we desire to be…that the world needs us to be.
Though these things are specifically for His purposes, they are ultimately for our benefit.
Be blessed for He is God!
