If you're a human, then you know that the world is deeply, horribly broken. I don't watch the news or even have social media, yet through conversations with other people I learn about our worlds wars, about countries struggling to find food and water, and then their own personal sufferings at times as well. It's heartbreaking from where we’re standing but I can't even begin to fathom how heartbreaking it is for our God to see His perfect world so saturated in sin and evil, in pain and suffering. No matter how much we try to dig ourselves under the rocks of blissful ignorance, we can't escape the tragedies of this world.
That’s why it is so important to cling to the truth that our pain has purpose. No, it absolutely was not Gods design for us to be in pain (thanks Satan and your temptations and lies), but because He’s so good He can make good out of the biggest tragedies, even if we never see it or understand them in our lifetime.
Earlier this year as I was preparing for our new homeschool year, the planner I bought suggested going through Gods word and finding scripture that can be the foundation for our family - our family verse. I sat alone, in town, in a little cafe (rare, I know), and I flipped through the Bible as different scriptures came to mind. After a bit I landed on 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. There was a praise and worship song that I used to listen to when I was little that helped me recall these verses, and as soon as I read them I knew that I wanted them to be the verses we spent our homeschool year, and every year after, memorizing.
“Now we have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.” (NLT)
When we first started memorizing these verses we just said them out loud, but then Emma had a brilliant idea to put the verses to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! Since we’ve done that we have completely memorized all four verses. We’ve also started singing it in the evening at dinner so Michael can learn it too. It is a family verse after all.
These verses are a reminder of our dependence on our Creator. He created us magnificently, but we are a delicate and fragile creation (like a clay jar), which means we are dependent on our Creator to care for and protect us. And yet, despite our fragility, He has entrusted us with His Light. This Light shines through the cracks that the rocks of life create when they’re thrown at us. Life circumstances and the enemy have ways of making us feel pressed on every side by troubles, perplexed and confused as to why what’s happening is happening, hunted down, knocked down and left lying bleeding on the floor. Life sucker punches us in the gut and Satan seeks to destroy us at every level, especially at the level of where our faith meets Jesus.
But God. Right?
He doesn’t come in and say we will never feel the weight of our circumstances or the war raging for our souls. That’s not the promise on this side of Heaven, but what He does say is that even though we suffer it is not in vain, we are not alone, and even though life leaves us feeling defeated, we are absolutely victorious every single time we run to Him.
We are pressed on every side by troubles but we are not crushed.
We are perplexed but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down but never abandoned by God.
We get knocked down but we are not destroyed.
We suffer because of the sin that entered the world through Adam and Eve. God sent Jesus into the world to save us through His suffering, death and resurrection - His divine plan of redemption. Now, as we live in the freedom of Christ, our suffering identifies us with Jesus and His glory, peace and the hope that comes through a life lived for Him can be seen by others around us even in our hardest, darkest moments. We live because He lives.
The victory is ours because we are His.
Amen.
Love,
Rachael
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