Treasured Truth

When we consider the purpose in our problems and pain, we need to realize that it’s not how much of Jesus we have, but it’s how much of us He has. Do we trust Him, in our time of trouble?

As we continue our study in James, Pastor Ford will ask us to consider this question—even though we’re going something right now, are we more committed to Jesus’ purpose than we are to getting out of our pain?

You may be going through a tremendous struggle right now, but as we begin to look at how there is purpose in our problems and pain, Pastor Ford will encourage you to not waste our sorrows.  Instead, we should embrace them, realizing that God is up to something and is working in our lives.

Pastor Ford points out that there are some individuals who don’t want anything to do with Jesus because of what somebody who knows Jesus did.  He’ll share with us how we should respond to this type of criticism from unbelievers.

Pastor Ford will remind us today that the condemnation of Good Friday was leading to the coronation of Resurrection Sunday.  If there were no Good Friday, then there could not be a Resurrection Sunday. And he points out that many of us want the power of the resurrection but we don’t want the pain of the cross.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He celebrated.  And in His resurrection celebration, Jesus had prayer and praise.  So, Pastor Ford will ask us today, if we’ve followed Jesus’ example—has resurrection power caused us to pray more?  Has it caused us to praise more?

As we begin to look at the resurrection of Lazarus, we realize that God wanted everyone to understand that if Jesus didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done—that is exactly why Jesus delayed his departure to return and help Lazarus.  And so we must realize that sometimes the reason Jesus hasn’t come to help with our problems yet is because they may not be bad enough yet.

God has allowed everything we go through, and He has a higher purpose for all of it.  Now we may not be able see or sense what that purpose is.  And we especially may not like it. But God is sovereign and He’s going to make sure that His purpose is done.

To understand the blessings in a beat down, we have to know that it’s better to walk with God in the darkness than to walk alone in the light.  That’s what Jesus wanted us to know.  Through the example of His life, we can see that He always put God first, especially in His suffering.

As we begin a new series called “Combating Criticism,” Pastor Ford encourages those of us who are being criticized to just let God handle it.  Don’t retaliate.  We should learn to evaluate the criticism, but let God deal with our critics, because eventually He will.