Me, A Might Warrior???

 

 

               Over the past few months, I’ve heard a statement on a couple of movies and read it in a couple of articles.  I’ve even had someone tell it to me personally.  While I know it was meant to be an encouragement, I’ve struggled with the concept.  You see, the statement (and maybe you’ve heard it too) is that “God gives His toughest battles to His strongest soldiers.”  While I wish I could agree and am tempted to take some satisfaction in it, I know myself all too well. 

Actually, when I first started hearing it, I thought, “Well, that would seem, then, that God is punishing some of us for being ‘strong.’ “

As if He were saying, “Congratulations!  Since you are so strong, here’s a life-shattering trial.  I know you’re tough; just fight your way through it.”

Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.  Scripture itself bears testimony to the fact that God is good to those that love Him and that He has great compassion for us.  “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” (Psalms 103:1) The word “pity” there conveys the idea of feeling pain or grief for one in great trouble; to have compassion and sympathy for them.

There are times we bring trouble on ourselves by our own choices, and, there again, the Bible says that we should bear that as a consequence of our choices.  There are times that we face great trials because of the choices of others, and we need to rest in the arms of God to bear us through the pain.  There are times that we face unimaginable difficulties simply because we live in a fallen world; a world filled with death and disease; a world filled with natural disasters; a world that is groaning because of the weight of sin mankind has polluted it with.  We’re quick to worry about the physical things we do that hurt our planet, but I wonder how often we consider the burden our sin puts on it.  In Genesis, after the first murder, God tells Cain, “The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.”  Throughout all history, the earth has had to bear the weight of sin.  Each murder, each act of violence, each lie, , each moral sin, each act of defiance to God’s Word places a burden on our earth that it was never designed to bear.  God created the earth as a perfect home for mankind, but through the ages, man has cast aside God’s plan and tried to choose his own way.  A way that, sadly, is slowly destroying the perfect home God intended.

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. “ Romans 8:22.  The burden of sin on the planet is like the pain of a woman in labor.  As the labor progresses the pain intensifies.  Until, at last, Isaiah tells us that, “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again” (Isaiah 24:20).  This poor world can only bear so much, and it will be sin and not climate change that finally does it in.  Yet still, God shows His love in promising those who are His children a new earth, once again free of the weight of sin. 

Have you ever traveled and felt a feeling of oppression where you have gone?  I remember one time, in particular, visiting a place in the States and feeling a tangible weight of oppression in the air while we were there.  Later, as I thought about it, I realized that that area of our country was settled by rough, non-Godfearing people and that there had never been a strong witness for God and truth in that area.  Your mind may jump to some of the “sin” cities our country is known for, but this was not any of those.  It was simply an area that had had years of sinful influences without God’s redeeming grace, and you could feel a heaviness there.  A heaviness that the land has had to bear for centuries.

Ok, I had no idea I’d go off on that rabbit trail!😏  But, I think we should all ponder the importance of our choices not only on ourselves and others, but on our planet, as well.

Now, back to what I started out to share.  Does God only allow His strongest soldiers to face severe trials?  If you sat down with those who have endured great heartache and sorrow and born it in a way that brings glory to God, I am convinced that every one of them will shout a resounding, “No!”

If we look at Scripture, that concept isn’t there.  In fact, the opposite is true.  Look at the apostle Paul.  It there was a “Mighty Warrior,” you’d think it would be him.  And yet, he prayed three times for God to take away his physical ailment.  While we don’t know for certain what that was, several references point to an eye disease that was actually repulsive to others (Galatians 4:13-15).  He didn’t have his own strength to bear that burden and asked God to remove it.  It’s hard to be different in a world that judges on appearances.  Even using a walker in public draws undesired attention.  But an oozing eye disease?  Yuck, right? 

And yet, when Paul asked God to take away his ailment, what did God say?  “Buck up, Paul, you’ve got this?”  Or even, “I wouldn’t have allowed this if I knew you couldn’t handle it?”  No.  Praise God, No.  He told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (II Corinthians 12:9)  God knew Paul couldn’t handle it on his own and reminded him that His grace was always sufficient. 

We think of “sufficient” as enough or just equal to what is needed.  If you have sufficient funds to pay your bills, you have the amount needed.  But the word “sufficient” that God uses in answering Paul conveys the idea of all you could ever need, more than enough.  Thayer’s Lexicon describes it as, “My grace is sufficient for thee, namely, to enable thee to bear the evil manfully; there is, therefore, no reason why thou shouldst ask for its removal.”   

It is our weakness that makes it possible for the world to see God’s power.  When we walk through a difficult trial and allow God’s grace to give us the strength to endure it well, then the world sees the goodness and faithfulness of God.  Others going through dark days can take courage as they see that there is a hope; a God sufficient for their trial as well.  If we try to barrel through in our own strength, all the world sees is someone trudging along just like them.  And eventually, our strength will fail.  And so will theirs.  For many of us, like Paul’s infirmity, our trial or heartache will last the rest of our lives.  If we rest in God’s grace, we can be a witness for Him for the time He gives us.  We can have a ministry of declaring God’s power through us.  No wonder Paul’s response was, “Most gladly will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  He realized that the testimony of God’s power as he trusted in Him was just as much of a witness as the epistles he wrote. 

You may feel that your trial has set you “on the back burner” of serving God.  I know it was very difficult for me to accept that I could no longer do the things I had been able to do for the Lord.  My love language is, hands down, acts of service.  I was the one with my hand in the air as soon as anyone said, “Can someone….”  I loved serving my family and caring for them.  I loved volunteering to clean the church or take a meal to someone.  When I became ill and could no longer do those things, I grieved the loss of my “voice.”  I could no longer express my love to others in my language, and it was very painful.  Now, God has been teaching me to speak in a new language.  The language of silence.  The language of letting Him speak to others by His testimony of grace in my life as I rest in His strength.  I am far from perfect, and it has been a long learning process, but if you have found yourself feeling “useless” for the Lord because of what you are unable to do, please, please learn from Paul.  Let your trust in God shout to the world that God is faithful and powerful.

The other day, I was talking to someone about how chronic illness requires us to trust God one day at a time.  Then I said something that shocked even me.  I told them that you trust God one day at a time and then glance back and see thirteen years’ worth of days that He has been sufficient for you.  Even now, I’m brought to tears at the vast sufficiency of His grace.  Even as stubborn as I am, I know I never would have made it this far in my own strength.  Praise God, I haven’t had to try.  He has been sufficient.  He has been faithful.  He has been good.  And no matter how many more days He gives me, I know I can trust Him.

I love Psalm 55.  I have clung to it through many trials over the years.  I’ve colored it, underlined it, and marked it in my Bible.  David pours out his heart in the midst of a painful trial and wishes to be free of the suffering.  “And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.  Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.  I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.”  (How many times have I thought that?!)  He then makes this statement, “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.  Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.  He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with [against] me.”

Our trial may not go away, but we can face each day with a peace that we can’t even explain.  I often say, “I know they don’t understand…I didn’t before either.”  I didn’t need to before, but now I do.  I believe in God’s goodness more now as an invalid than I did as a healthy, on-the-go, non-stop individual.  Because now I have had to rely on it and have found it sufficient and faithful.

That isn’t to say that there still aren’t hard days.  In fact, today as I write, the rest of my family is out in the forest picking wild blueberries.  Something I would love to be involved in, but I was just not feeling well enough to go.  Little thing, right?  Yes, I suppose, but I still have to ask God for His grace to accept it.  And, instead of being out enjoying the outdoors with my family, here I sit writing, and God is still good.  Several years ago, our pastor was talking about Paul writing from prison.  He made a statement that has stuck with me.  He said, “When Paul could no longer go on his missionary journeys, he hung up his sandals and picked up his quill.”  Instead of complaining about how he couldn’t travel, he found another way to reach others.  You know, if I had never faced my illness, I would be too busy to write.  Not that I’m a literary genius like Paul, but I’m just trying to encourage you to learn a “new language” if yours has been taken from you.

Even as I write, I can’t help thinking of the families who are grieving the loss of those killed in the flooding in Texas.  Once again, as the earth groans, we see the devastation. There are no words I can even begin to think of in my own strength that could offer any comfort to those parents and loved ones.  It is a grief beyond anything I can imagine; however, the apostle Paul shares a time in his life when the severe trials he and those with him were facing caused him to say “that we despaired even of life.”  There are trials that are so severe that we lose the will to live.  We don’t believe we will be able to take another breath amid the pain.  And Paul continues, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.”  Even though they despaired of making it out alive, he said that they should not trust themselves but rather trust God to help them through it.  And that is true for all of us.

So, am I a mighty warrior?  No, but I have a mighty God.  If, by His grace, I battle well, then all praise to Him who is worthy “to receive glory and honour and power:” (Revelation 4:11a) because it is His power reflected in my weakness that you actually see.