"When God Doesn't Fix It"

"When God Doesn't Fix It" was the name of a devotional that caught my eye recently when I visited a link someone had sent to another article. 

This one was at

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/your-painful-story-brings-god-glory .

Because how many of us have something in our lives that God hasn't seemed to fix for us, and if you have your life all fixed up just the way you like it, maybe you should move on to another kind of post.

The author, John Piper, was talking about a minister who didn't hide a struggle he was facing with a wayward child.  Piper wrote that "telling our personal stories of struggle and pain can be dangerous. Fortunately, this minister realized he wasn’t the only one going through a trial. Parents in his church and community were facing the same issues and needed the same kind of support he did. God used him and his willingness to share his pain to form a confidential support group for parents whose children were involved in destructive lifestyles. He wasn’t shouting his story from a megaphone on a Sunday morning, and he wasn’t doing it in a way that would shame his child. He was privately sharing his suffering with those who needed to hear it most. 

"In the group, parents of alcoholics and drug abusers came together and prayed for their children in a faith-filled, understanding, and supportive environment. Think of how many families have been helped because they now have a safe place to discuss their struggles!" Piper wrote. "I’m so thankful my friend knew God could redeem his broken story, and he was willing to be a part of redeeming other people’s broken stories.

"Imagine how thankful the parents who come to this group are for his willingness to be transparent. He didn’t wait for his story to be resolved or to have a happy ending. He shared his story of struggling with a child he loves dearly but couldn’t help.

Piper continued, "His story reminds me that when God uses our stories to heal others, they don’t have to be finished. They don’t have to be wrapped up into a neat, tidy bow with all the answers before God can use them. He can redeem our stories while they’re still tattered, and we’re still in the brokenness."

 And so another mother, wife, sister and just-another-woman

keeps finding the courage to blog and share what encourages, challenges and inspires her.

 Because she knows that she isn't the only wife and mother and common, ordinary person

who sometimes ends up with a heavy heart all unexpectedly

and it won't go away, no matter how much you try to find comfort in God's Word.

There is something about knowing you are not alone

when God doesn't fix things.

When you are reading Revelations for your devotions, and you read about God on His throne and how the four and twenty elders spend their time (if there is such a thing as time in eternity)

falling down on their faces and worshipping Him.

And you think, well wouldn't it be nice to be God and have everybody bowing down to you

instead of having to be the person who seems to be supposed to meet all the demands?

 

Does such a God have a clue about us down here below, who are struggling just to find time to read a chapter of your Bible while endless duties call?

And for a moment that feels rebellious, you wonder if that God up there somewhere has any clue

about what it means to be the common ordinary person who is trying to do everything right to please Him,  and the loads get heavy.

You never had such a rebellious thought, I'm sure.

But then there are verses further on about the Lamb who died--
the Lamb Who gave His life; Who knew what it was like to suffer, to work all day long,

to minister and serve God and honestly please Him

even when the religious leaders decided He was a deceiver and a no-good

and full of the devil. 

He knew what it was like to suffer false accusations and misunderstandings and people who were out on purpose to catch him in His talk so they could kill Him.

Yes, God said that He cares for us.

That God to whom heaven and earth bow to worship

cares personally for each common, ordinary person.

Sometimes you have to talk to yourself like that and you just have to tell yourself the truth.

John Piper said it this way.

" Listen to Lloyd-Jones take hold of this verse:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you.” (Spiritual Depression, 20–21)

http://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/when-depression-descends-do-the-next-thing,

 And so when common, ordinary mothers are struggling with God, it's just like Jacob

struggled with God.  Hosea wrote, "yes, he struggled...and prevailed...

He found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke to us."

It was not the simple prayer of a small child. 

 But the struggling prayer of one finding his way out of a long journey fraught with mistakes and immaturities and sins. Jacob did not say his bedtime prayers.

He wrestled with His God--

 and prevailed.

He struggled until the day broke and the Angel of God had to touch his hipbone and weaken him, because amazingly, a man strove with God and prevailed. 

Man was not strong, but God in those moments, became weak for Jacob's sake. 

The Mighty God chose to become weak enough for a mere man to prevail.

 Yet in truth, God was always mightier. 

All it took was a touch, and Jacob's hip socket went out of joint.

Yet even despite that, the Scripture says Jacob prevailed with God for His blessing.

And so mere men and mere women can still prevail.

In those times of weakness and testing, we can wrestle with God

and be honest with Him about our pain and our confusions and our doubts and our fears. 

When our batteries are totally worn out,

 we can come to Him for charging.

And then is it possible for the Almighty to use a mere mortal in some small way,

as a carpenter and remodeler chooses the tools to take with him 

on another Mission Helps trip?

 When our prayers, although wrestled and wrung from a heavy heart, are reduced to 

the simple prayer of a child, 

God the Almighty still cares for us.

When our plate is piled so high we feel we can

never take a bite out of the pile,

God is there to bring the mountains low,

and to level out the valleys,

to straighten out the crooked places and make the rough places smooth.

Somehow in the midst of busy days where you end up prostrated with weakness,

God comes through 

and speaks peace to your soul.

And another Jacob wrestles with God--and prevails.