Trust In Troubling Times.  By Arlene Hendriks.

“God’s goodness shines through regardless of your situation. Seek Him in every moment of your life. At times, His blessings arrive wrapped in pain and struggle. It’s during these trials that we experience His goodness most deeply through trusting Him. Trying to unravel the reasons behind your suffering may leave you empty, but trust will draw you nearer to God. He sees your hurt, promises to right your wrongs, and leads you forward. Jesus created us to live in peace throughout each day—a peace that quiets my fears and steadies my mind. Remember, your purpose isn’t to master or mend everything around you. Our true aim is to stay connected with God daily. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you step by step.” (A quote from Janet’s friend.)

When I received this encouraging message in my text thread this morning, my heart leaped for joy! It was such a blessing to hear from another source things the Lord has been teaching me about His plans to reveal Himself to us and infuse His grace into our hearts. It’s been amazing to find that He does this most powerfully through the trouble we experience.

To the unknown woman who wrote these words, here is what the Lord stirred up in my heart. This is so right on and summarizes the end point to which the Lord is leading us AND each step we take toward that end point! Paul expressed this truth so succinctly in 2 Cor. 4:17-18 ESV

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

As we go through our difficulties, tragic, unrelenting or even just ordinary disappointments and struggles of each day, God is not out there spinning a wheel to see who gets the next trial, or the grand prize.

Rather, He is carefully calibrating the events of our lives to press us up to Himself so that His Holy Spirit can lead us into His Truth which sets us free indeed.

The failures, trials and tragedies in my life have truly worked powerfully to bring me to know and trust Him as He draws me to Himself with the question, “Will you trust Me with this?”

At first it was a huge struggle for me to say “yes” without demanding an explanation or promise of reward for my trusting Him through this terrible trial. But as I learned to pray,

“What You give, I receive;

what You take or withhold, I release.

And I choose to trust You with all my heart for all my days”

I’ve experienced more deeply and richly that even in the deepest distress of any moment or length of time, even in the most impossibly daunting circumstances, I still have the option to choose to trust His wisdom, His good plans and His trustworthiness in all things.

Now, as I approach, if not the brink of eternity, at least the outskirts, the Lord reminds me that someone is watching my reactions to the losses, as little by little the prime of life slinks away.
I can paste a phony smile on my face and answer a friend’s inquiry, with, “fine!” or I can choose to run to my Shepherd and let Him lead me to green pastures and quiet waters where I find rest in Him, trusting His heart of love for us.

I choose Him.

Even as I have made that choice to trust my Lord in all things, I find it’s not simply saying
“I trust You” and everything immediately and magically gets “fixed”. Sometimes when I am in the midst of a particularly tough problem, I am able to remind myself that this, too, shall pass, and out of it will come some purposes of the Lord I don’t see at the moment. At those times, it is enough to help me turn to Him and submit the circumstance to Him.

But other times, I get caught in what seems to be a mindless irritation or stumbling block put in my path for no discernible reason, and I’m not really interested in finding some lofty purpose for it. I’m tired of being taught, and I just want to be done with all the petty irritations I face from day to day. I’m tired of…well, I don’t know exactly what, but the idea that God has something to teach me out of the particular set of events at that moment doesn’t really motivate me to move out of the grumbling, complaining mode. In those times I’ve found that one of the purposes God has in allowing trouble gives me something to which I can anchor my floundering soul. This encourages me to continue to resist the schemes of the enemy of my soul.

One of the most astounding revelations of the purpose the Lord has for his saints is found in the book of Ephesians.

“…in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” – Epesians 3:10 NASB

I wonder how it can be that those creatures who are continuously with the Father need to have anything further revealed. But here again is the essence of what the Lord is trying to communicate to us: that His character and nature are revealed through our experience of Him in accordance with His Word. And while the angels, both those who remain with Him and those who were cast out with Lucifer, know much of His character that we cannot know now, there are also facets revealed to us which they cannot know.

The angels have never known the wonder of forgiveness; those who are with the Father, because they have not sinned, and those who fell, because they have not repented.

This passage declares that through the church the manifold wisdom of God was to be revealed to them. Do angels wonder, too, what God is up to when He allows such devastation to occur as we see all around us? I would submit that when all the circumstances of our lives argue against our affirming God as a God of justice, we can stand firm anyway. Since we have experienced His grace and mercy when we sin and repent, we can stay steady, trusting His Word rather than our interpretation of circumstances. As we pass through difficulties, and God’s plans for us are put into effect, conforming us to the image of Christ Jesus, the angels get to observe grace in action. Then, something of God’s character is revealed to those angels who have never experienced devastation, as well as to those who never chose to repent.

“…you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time…that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…things into which angels long to look.”   – 1 Peter 1:5-12 NASB

We often think of salvation in terms of a destination—heaven. It certainly is that. We all look forward to arriving at that destination, of being with the Lord eternally. But salvation is more than a destination; it is also a process-that of becoming whole persons. Angels know nothing of this process. They have never been broken, in need of healing, never been sinners in need of forgiveness; in short, they have never experienced the goodness of God as ones totally undeserving of it. In that respect, there are facets of God’s character hidden from them which are being revealed now, and which will be unveiled further at a time in the future.

What a heart-stopping thought! We, through the lives we live here and our response to our circumstances, are called to be part of showing the character of God for Who He really is to even the angels of the heavenly places! God’s cosmic purpose for all the ages is so immense that we can only catch a glimpse of it, looking through a glass darkly; but when we realize that God has never abandoned us, has never turned His back on us, has invited us to be partakers of His very nature through His working in us, then we have some powerful tools to help us choose life in those times when it seems only death is on every hand.

We need to look beyond our present troubles to what God’s purpose is in allowing them for us. But we need to approach Him in faith, with an attitude of consent, inviting Him to work His miracles in us to make us strong and whole, no longer under the domain of darkness, but fully and firmly established in the kingdom of His beloved Son.

I can see the scene now. It is the day when we all stand before the judgment seat to be presented to the Father. All the hosts of heaven are gathered around. As the scene opens, stretched out as far as the eye can perceive, is a sea of shrouded figures like a sculptor’s masterpieces awaiting the moment of unveiling. A low murmur is heard as Jesus strides into view, majestic in His splendor, with a look of delight on His face. He approaches the figures hidden by shrouds, and with obvious excitement in His voice He says, “And now, Joseph!… Peter!… James!… Miriam!… Jon!… Julie!… Nathan!… Robert!… Rahab!… Sandy!… Arlene!”

One angel looks at another saying, “Did He say ‘Arlene’?”

“That’s what it sounded like to me,” replies the other.

“Why is He so excited about her? She was so much trouble. Remember how we were always picking her up, dragging her out of one problem after another?”

“Well, I don’t know. It must be a different Arlene.”

Just then Jesus whisks off my cover, and there I stand before the Father spotless, without a single blemish, nothing at which to cast blame. As Jesus walks on, removing one cover after another, “Juan,” “Rina,” “Deborah,” “Pedro,” “Marcos,” “George,” “Elisa,” “Frans,” “Dieter,” “Milan,” “Susie,” “Draha,” the angels suck in their breath in wonder and awe.

“I didn’t know He could do this with those,” they say as they see ones to whom they were sent to minister presented to the Father unspotted, holy and without blame. A new revelation of God is opened to them, one they had not known before.

For the time of our sojourn here on earth we have a vision and a reality drawing us on. As God gains more access to our hearts, the coal bin is swept clean, and holes are knocked in the walls to let light in. Where were dirty, black, ugly lumps of coal, now gems lie, sparkling, gleaming, turning, reflecting the Father’s heart to all who pass by, inviting them also to embark on this adventure of becoming whole!

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Note:

Some of this message is quoted from my book, Treasures Out of Trauma, pages 141-143. For more information about this class and book, go to https://heartsbeinghealed.org/after-conference-support/