Let me just open this post by acknowledging that I am, by nature, a person that is very prone to nervousness and "taking things to heart". This has caused me much angst over the years and has recently manifested itself in terrible anxiety attacks and, because of their severity, an overall since of dispair. But! thanks be to God, that He purposes even these times of severe turmoil for our growth in grace! In this vein I wanted to share a portion from Milton Vincent's "A Gospel Primer", in which he deals with God's ongoing work of conforming us to the gospel.
"Perspective in Trials"
"More than anything else I could ever do, the gospel enables me to embrace my tribulations and thereby position myself to gain full benefit from them. For the gospel is the one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves His gospel purposes in me. When I view my circumstances in this light, I realize that the gospel is not just one piece of good news that fits into my life somewhere among all the bad. I realize instead that the gospel makes genuinely good news out of every other aspect of my life, including my severest trials. The good news about my trials is that God is forcing them to bow to His gospel purposes and do good unto me by improving my character and making me more conformed to the image of Christ.
Preaching the gospel to myself each day provides a lens through which I can view my trials in this way and see the true cause for rejoicing that exists in them. I can then embrace trials as friends and allow them to do God's good work in me."
3 comments:
Thanks for that post Tom.
I have been praying for you, and will continue. I pray that the God of all Comfort will continue to comfort you. What would we do without Him? With Peter, I say, "where else would we go? You have the words of life!"
So great to know that our trials aren't extra or bigger than His Gospel.
Craig
I'm also praying for you, Tom.
Your last few comments and posts have seemed so familiar to me in tone.
Anxiety and depression are familiar acquaintances of mine. It is interesting how God allows us to experience difficulties in order to refine and purge us of our unbelief. Different individuals will have different struggles, but in all, He's proving His faithfulness to us and urging us to look at Him instead of our (real or imagined) circumstances.
Sometimes, the only thing you can do is mentally remind yourself that Jesus can be trusted regardless of how you feel or what is happening round you.
Don't know if you've already read it, but I thought I'd offer an older post of mine which was written in a moment of clarity during my "bad" time of year.
If you're interested:
http://onmysoapbox2.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/storms-stars-and-sparrows/
May God Bless and comfort you in your time of sorrow.
Heather
Craig and Heather,
Thank you so much for your faithful encouragement and your prayers! I know that my God will see me through any difficulty that He calls me to go through as I cling to His sufficient grace.
Post a Comment