Have you ever felt like you are standing in the fire? Like everywhere you turn, you just keep getting burned? Or maybe you feel like you are drowning, thick clouds pouring unrelenting water from above while the waves below try their best to drag you under.
I know the feeling.
How can we trust God in the middle of the fire or the flames?
Sometimes we feel as though God’s best for us means protecting us from pain, danger, or heartache. Surely a truly loving Father would want us to always feel safe, happy and secure, right? However, the truth is that many times He actually calls us into the hard and uncomfortable places. Why? Because there are some lessons that are best learned in the middle of suffering. Now before you jump ship on this post and start searching for a funny reel to take your mind off of what I just said, know that this isn’t something I like either. I’ve always been averse to suffering. I avoid it at all costs. And when things get tough and I can’t see the road ahead, it’s hard for me to hold on and believe that there is purpose in this place.
But sometimes obedience calls us to avoid the lure of our comfort zone and choose to step into the fire with no other promise or assurance than the knowledge that God is good, that He is trustworthy, that His plan is perfect, and that He loves us. Sometimes we have to make the hard decision to choose to trust God when He places us in situations that we never would have chosen, even when nothing makes sense and our feelings tell us otherwise.
To trust is not to put our hope in a desired outcome (though we can and should make our requests known to God). It is good to pray that your body will heal, that your finances will improve, or that someone who is hurting you will change. We can hope for these things, but we cannot hope in them. They are not a sure foundation, and they are not promised. Instead, our only sure foundation is the unchanging character of God (He is faithful, kind and loving, even when it doesn’t feel that way) and the joyous reassurance that even if things never get better, even if our desired outcome never happens, and even if God asks us to walk through suffering for the rest of our lives, this world is not all there is. Jesus is coming. Unending joy in His presence is coming. And the troubles of this life, no matter how severe, will not be worth comparing with the joy that is to come.
The only reason I am able to write this is because I’m living it. I don’t write from theory but from experience. And it has been messy. But it is now in learning to trust God that I have began to experience what it means to have a peace that passes understanding. A peace that doesn’t make sense.
I used to think that fear kept me safe. That if I imagined all possible scenarios and planned for them that I could avoid pain. I now realize that fear just stole my peace, and it did not keep me from suffering…it increased it. Fear tortured my heart and mind and ultimately didn’t keep the hurt from coming. Relying on myself, my wisdom and my understanding only increased my inner turmoil.
In Jeremiah 17 it says,
Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.
7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Friend, it is possible to not fear when the heat comes. It is possible to trust God in the dark. This will have to be a daily, moment-by-moment choice. But when you do, you will get to experience what it looks like to bear fruit, even in seemingly dry seasons. This does not mean you will not experience grief. I still hurt, I still mourn, I still cry. And so will you. But in Christ we can experience a deep peace that surpasses all understanding and know that even if we never get to fully taste it on this earth, relief is coming.
Do you believe it?
I love the point about thinking fear can keep you safe, or free from pain. It’s still OUR dear thoughts and all of OUR plans, not God’s power, protection and providence! Thank you for sharing.