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Good morning!

“Lord, Your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live!” Isaiah 38:16

This theme of praise is going to perhaps take a turn that is controversial, but I’d ask you to consider.

People will say “God doesn’t cause bad things to happen.” Let’s break that sentence down. I know that this could go so much deeper than what I even say in this short message.

First, what do you consider “bad”? Some things are very obviously what humans would call bad: rape, abuse, human trafficking, slavery, to name a few. But what about the other, less overt things? For example, a ruptured intestine or painful jaw (yours truly) , a lost job, a fight between two people, and I’m sure you could name a long list of things just like I can.

What if the lost job led to the job that the person is so much more excited about? What if the fight between two people creates a change in attitude, perspective and personal growth? What if the ruptured intestine or painful jaw caused the person to focus on God and His power because she realized her power zaps out repeatedly when left to her own devices?

Perhaps God in His sovereignty, desiring eternity with us, knows that when everything is hunky dory we forget all about Him but when we experience pain, we suddenly want more of Him. We are more likely to dive into a deeper relationship with Him and that is where we find true peace and healing.

I’m doing a Bible Study in Isaiah with a group of ladies and we studied just this topic as I’m writing this.

C.S. Lewis famously said, “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

But…..also, let me be clear. I do not say I know the mind of God or what He does or that I have all the answers. I am only saying we need to not put God into a box of what we contrive.

Application: What painful thing either in the past or present has brought you to a deeper awareness of God?