John 9:1-3 “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
One of the more difficult aspects of being a follower of Jesus is understanding the will of God. We look at the world and we see that there is so much pain and we ask why there is so much suffering in the world. In fact, this is a question that many people who have not begun a walk with God ask. “If there is a God of love, why does He permit so much suffering in the world?”
When we start our walk with Jesus, He asks us continually: “Do you trust Me?” We make our profession: “Yes Lord I love you and I trust you.” In case you have not yet noticed, we, humans make many declarations and promises that we do not, and often cannot keep.
In order to test the profession that we love and trust Jesus, He places us into situations where we can see if what we have claimed can be proven true by the realities of life. If we say that we trust the Lord, we will be placed in a position where we will be lacking something that we need. Maybe a situation will present itself where we be in fear of what might happen. It may be that we will find ourselves uncertain about a particular situation in our life. It is during needs, fears or uncertainty that we see whether or not our confession of trust in Jesus is true or not.
This is the reason that we are many times placed into some of the difficult trials of our life. We may suffer or struggle, not because we have sinned or done something wrong, but because we are doing something right.
Remember Job who suffered the loss of most of his material possessions, his children and even his health. Job had done nothing wrong. He was thrust into his horrible trial because he had determined to live for the Lord with all of His heart. His friends did not understand his trial. They believed that Job’s suffering was caused by some secret sin that Job was hiding. No one, including Job, knew that his trial had come about because satan had made an accusation that Job only served God for the benefits he received from God.
At the end of Job’s trial, he stated that before his suffering had begun he had heard about how God worked in a person’s life. After the trial was concluded, Job declared that now he saw with his own eyes how God worked. Job learned about God from his trial. He grew to know the will of God by the things that he suffered.
Many people during the days that Jesus walked the earth, looked at birth defects and dissabilities as some kind of judgement from God, or at the very least, punishment for their sins. Even Jesus’ disciples believed that the blindness of the man described in John 9:1, was either caused by his sin or the sin of his parents. Imagine what a shock it was when they learned that sometimes the Lord allows people to be born with a disability so that He can show His mighty power in their weakness.
Paul stated that he understood that the reason that Jesus had permitted him to suffer through a horrible eye condition ,was to show Paul how strong the Lord could be in a totally yielded vessel.
2 Corinthians 12:10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
When someone understands and trusts in the will of God as always being for good, that even suffering always has the deeper purpose of displaying his love, that person is then ready to be greatly used by the Lord. The walk that we are seeking with the Lord is one where we do not have to know or understand the reasons why He does what He does. We have reached a conclusion in our heart, that the Lord is always good and that everything He does, always has a maximum benefit intended for us.
When we don’t understand what and why the Lord is doing what He is doing, we go back to what we do know. On a horrible Cross, Jesus poured out His entire life, all because He loves us so much. At the Cross, Jesus forever displayed to the Universe, how much He truly loves us. When we don’t understand, when we can’t figure out what He is doing, we go back to the Cross and there we are reminded; This is how much Jesus loves me.”
Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?“
