GOD’s megaphone…

it helps me remember as i ponder this mystery of pain and evil that although suffering is not good, GOD can use it to accomplish good. HE can and does use it to accomplish good. and there are many ways that GOD does this.

one way is GOD uses pain to draw people toward CHRIST.

the CHRISTian philosopher peter craff put it this way, “the meaning and purpose of suffering in history is that it leads to repentance. only after suffering, only after disaster did israel, do nations, do individuals turn back to GOD.” suffering brings repentance. we learn the hard way.

as c. s. lewis said, “GOD whispers to us in our pleasure. HE speaks to us in our conscious. but HE shouts to us in our pain. pain is GOD’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

many of you know that’s exactly true in your own experience. if you’re going through times in your life when everything is going great, the sun is shining, the money is rolling in, the marriage is wonderful, the job’s great, it’s in those seasons when we’re less likely to turn to GOD. but when there is pain, when suffering comes, when heartbreak takes place, what’s the first thing we do? we get on our knees and we pray, “GOD, help me! i need YOU! i want YOU! lead my life! help me in this situation.”

2 corinthians 7.10 (lb), for GOD sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life. then look at the next sentence. we should never regret HIS sending it.

why? because if it causes us to seek GOD and to find GOD, the experience of that is so great it is worth whatever pain it caused us to seek GOD in the first place.

there was a woman once who had lived a very wild life. she had been very far from GOD then she contracted cancer and it was terminal. she had a very short time to live. she, in her desperation and in her pain and suffering, reached out to GOD. and GOD embraced her and she had the most beautiful relationship with HIM and she made a very radical statement before she died. she said, “if it took cancer for me to meet JESUS CHRIST, i say thank GOD for cancer.” that is a very radical statement. if that doesn’t compute with you, maybe one reason might be that you don’t know JESUS yet in that way. i pray the day will come when you will know HIM in that way and be able to say, “regardless of what it took for me to come to this point it was worth it for this.”

just a thought from the front porch…