Do you want more of God?

Do you want more of God in your life? Then you must attempt great things for Him. 

We will not fully engage with God and all that He is until we fully engage with what God does and is doing. 

What kind of great things? The things God has stirred in your heart through his word that honor Him.

Doing great things requires great strength. Great strength requires great faith in God who gives us the strength necessary to accomplish things we could never do on our own. We engage God by faith and, as a result, experience Him more fully.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” - Romans 10:17 

Great (i.e., supernatural) strength comes only from God. We are merely jars of clay that hold great treasure. But we are also the only jars that can display that treasure in the way we were made to and nothing else in creation can. Only we are like God (in His image). Nothing else is. 

If you want more of God, pursue great things for Him.

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit (who empowers us to live for God) to those who ask him!”” - Luke 11:9-11, 13 ESV

“I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.” - Proverbs 8:17 ESV

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” - Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ” - John 15:7-8 ESV

Advancing in pain

The age-old question is if God is good, why is there so much pain. 

But maybe that's the wrong question and the answer is not what we usually think. Maybe God allows pain to remain to humble us and help us see our need for Him, with the long-term goal of our spiritual advancement and ultimate gain. 

Christ said, "...What does it profit us if we gain the whole world but lose our own soul?"

Wouldn't the opposite also be true? What if we lose the whole world and gain our eternal soul? Is this not far more valuable than having the things of this world? How we answer these questions may determine our ultimate destiny and is therefore well worth asking.

While pain is ultimately the fruit of our rebellious distrust of God, He still uses it for our good. If God could not bring good out of evil (and the pain it causes), evil would not exist. Christ's death would be the ultimate example of this profound paradox. 

Acts 2:23 "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

What a mystery that God used lawlessness to bring to us the greatest gift of eternal restoration to the Father who is the Source of life! 

Therefore, we must not allow suffering to discourage or shame us, or ¹cause us to fall into self-pity e.g., "You're a loser! Why keep trying? Just quit!..." etc. 

But we must embrace pain and embrace God and His love for us in our pain and failures for our advancement to occur (God is for us, not against us. Nothing separates us from God's love...Rom 8:31-39). 

"...Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in ²hope of the glory of God. 

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us..." - Romans 5:2-5 ESV 

As long as we look at loss, failure, or mistakes as losing and not stepping stones to advancing, we will not embrace them with thanks, learn from them, and let them develop our maturity and advance our walk with God. When we recognize our losses, failures, and mistakes are vital to our spiritual advancement, we embrace them with gratitude and experience God's grace, mercy, and love in them. 

Having our identity and value rooted in God as the bedrock of our existence - and the very Source of love itself - frees us from seeing failure or loss as losing. The whole mindset of the Bible is that ³failure is a necessary stepping stone to progress and maturity. 

"When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realise that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence..." - Jas 1: 2-8. J B Phillips translation. 

This is foundational to understanding and embracing pain with thanks instead of becoming disillusioned, angry, or bitter over suffering and seeking to manipulate our circumstances to avoid it. 

The importance of humility

Another vital key to the value of loss or failure is humility. To understand we will never reach the maximum potential we were created for without God (which failure or loss helps us to see) causes us to look to Him in greater dependence. Greater dependence on God as the Source of life, love, and all things is the essence of humility. Only through humility can we reach the potential God intends and designs us for.

Christ himself, who deserved far better, did no less... i.e. he experienced the greatest suffering and humility. And that for our benefit as well as His Father's glory.

"...Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. - Philippians 2:5-11 ESV

How do we discover God's love in our pain? click here

For a further discussion on the primary role of pain, click here

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good, click here...and here.

The greater the evil the greater the opportunity for healing/

grace, click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job, click here.

For a discussion on the value of paradox, click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of humility, click here

____________________________________

Footnotes:

¹nor let pain embitter us. At the root of anger is the belief that we know what is best for us - and/or the world - better than God. Yet we are finite, not all-knowing or all-powerful. Only God is infinite in these things. 

And not only so, but he is also all-loving. He not only knows what's best (all-knowing) and does what's best (all-powerful), but wants it for us also (all-loving).

But many object and say, "How can God be all-loving and continue to allow all this pain in the world? What proof do we have that He is all-loving?" 

Glad you asked! He became a man just like us and fully embraced our pain so that we might ultimately be free of it forever.

² "...we rejoice in hope of the glory of God..." What a curious expression. What is it about the glory of God that gives us hope? To explore this further, click here.

³This is contingent on our seeing failure as a means by which God can ultimately advance us. If we do not, it will embitter us.

Free will or free choice?

While our choices are ¹free and 100% ours (i.e. we freely choose to do what we want), our ³wills are not. Our wills are tied to our desires (wants). 

To say it another way, our "chooser" is not broken, but our "wanter" is.

²And our wants (desires) dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

If we desire (want) the wrong things, we choose to pursue the wrong things. 

And our desires are tied to what we value. The more we value something, the more we desire it and the harder we pursue it. 

And we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

If ⁴we are blind to seeing God's true value, worth, beauty, wisdom, glory, majesty, and power as our infinite loving Creator - i.e., the Source of life, love, and all things - we will never pursue Him as the infinitely valuable and significant (glorious) being that He is. We will desire and pursue created things and beings instead. 

(For a further discussion on our ability to see things as they truly are, click here.)

Why? ⁵We are like God and created to enjoy (delight in) Him who is most valuable, beautiful, wise, glorious, majestic, and loving. Absent a personal relationship with Him, we do not see Him as He is and go after His creation (the next best thing) to fill the void of His absence. Particularly other bearers of His image (you and I) who, by design, are most like God and have the greatest capacity to love and reflect Him most. This capacity is awakened and rengaged when we are in union with Him through Christ.

And what is truly valuable is experienced by faith more than pleasant circumstances. 

"...without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he ⁶rewards those who seek him." - Heb 11:6

For a further discussion on the importance and necessity of faith, click here.

So do we have any evidence that God is trustworthy outside of - or in spite of - our circumstances? 

Yes, Christ Himself and what he went through to restore us to the Father. If this was the only evidence to prove God's love to and for us, it is more than sufficient. No other evidence is necessary. 

But to fully appreciate this restoration, we must understand who God created us to be and how alienated we are from Him who is the Source of life.

God's glory is our glory.

Scripture tells us God is infinitely valuable (glorious), but what about our value and our feeling of being significant or important? Are we valuable? Does it matter? If so, why?

Because God is significant, important, and valuable, we are and must be like Him in this same way in order for us to be able to appreciate and enjoy Him in all His glory and all these qualities He possesses. 

We are told in Jas 4: 

[5] "...Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”"?  

What kind of spirit has God put within us? A spirit that longs (is passionate) for infinite love, worth, and glory. Love that can only be satisfied fully by the Source of love - our Creator - not by creation. 

This includes all the innate talents and gifts we already possess... such as musical, mechanical, athletic, business, artistic (creative), speaking, writing, or intellectual skills etc.  

God will not share in (is jealous over) our pursuit or loyalty to any other "lover" because He knows our greatest joy and satisfaction is ⁷ultimately in Him. There is no other true "lover" who can fill this need and desire in us for love; love that He designed to be filled ultimately and only by Him who is love. Not because He needs our love but because we need His. This is "the spirit He has made to dwell in us."

Our capacity to value and enjoy Him is unparalleled by any other creature - even celestial beings.

Our being in His image wasn't happenstance. He designed us this way. He is the Creator; we are His creatures...but unlike the rest of creation, we are created in His image. Therefore, He loves us and desires that we experience Him to the maximum extent of His true worth and our capacity as bearers of His image. 

Everything in creation we seek for life (i.e. meaning, significance, value) outside of God is temporary. Creation is good and has value, but it is limited. Therefore, it comes up short of filling our need for and sense of value-worth (glory). God gives us creation as a means of revealing Himself to us and as evidence of His infinite love for us. But it was never meant to be our god, i.e., that which we worship and pursue.

GOD alone is the Source of infinite love. To experience His love to the maximum extent of our capacity, we must give Him all our loyalty and faithfulness (i.e., have no other "gods" before Him). Otherwise, we will never experience His love as it truly is and as we were designed to, but instead we will pursue created things (especially other creatures) for love, meaning, and purpose outside of and instead of Him. We can not worship both God and mammon.

Where does this need/desire for significance (glory) come from? Click here. 

Why was there a forbidden tree in the garden? Click here.

For a discussion on the necessity of choice, click here.

For a further discussion on how our "wanter" is broken and not our "chooser," click here. 

For a further discussion on how our choices are affected by our ability to see, click here.

For a discussion on ability vs. responsibility, click here

____________________ 

Footnotes:

¹And our choices are ours alone. No one else's, including God. Therefore, we are fully accountable for what we value and choose to pursue. 

²Note the progression of the "ands" mentioned at beginning of this article. Each deals with a significant shift, but also a vital connection to the previous and following "and" statement. To get to the 2nd "and" you must acknowledge the 1st. And to get to the 3rd, we must recognize the 2nd, etc. Here's a recap...

*our wants-desires dictate what we ¹choose to pursue. 

*our desires-wants are tied to what we value

*we value only what we ⁴see as valuable. 

*our partaking of and participation in His love now is primarily by faith

³Is God free to do whatever he wants? 100%!  But because God is holy, He only wants (desires-wills) what is good and best. He freely chooses righteousness; i.e., His character or nature dictates His will/desires, as does ours.

 For a fuller discussion, click here.

⁴To see truly, the Spirit of God must reside in us and reveal to us God's true character. And that only occurs after we've been "born again," i.e., after we are spiritually regenerated. 

"Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again (1st) he cannot see the kingdom of God.” " John 3:30

Before we are born again, we are blind to spiritual things - i.e., we can not see the things pertaining to God's kingdom. The Bible says we are dead to God. Last I checked, dead people don't see very well 😉! 

⁵Why does our feelings and desire for significance, importance, and value matter? 

We are like God, who is significant, important, and valuable. We must be like Him so we can appreciate and enjoy these qualities in Him. Those persons or beings most like God are most able to appreciate and enjoy Him as He is.

God's significance, importance, and value (glory) are the foundation for (and Source of) ours. Our recognizing this about God is essential to experiencing our own true value (glory). The more we see his glory, the more we experience our glory in and through Him. 

⁶Rewards may be in this life but ultimately and mainly are in the next. Our primarily reward is God Himself revealed to us in the fullness of His glory in eternity. We only see him now by faith - i.e. through a "glass darkly." In eternity we will see Him face to face for the first time! And then we will be like him (i.e. all glorious) for we will see Him as He is i.e. in the fullness of His glory!!! We can't yet because we are not fully glorified. To see God in our present unglorified state would kill us.

⁷there is nothing wrong with creation and all the gifts that come to us through it. It is good to enjoy the good things God gives us as long as we don't make them the highest things i.e. They don't become our gods that we value above the one and only true God.

being righteous, living righteously

Is there a difference between being righteous - our legal status before God - and living righteously - our daily conduct? 

Many within the church confuse these and mix them together. Though they are clearly connected, they are completely distinct. 

Even though God grants us total righteousness (our perfect legal standing) before Him in Christ, he still desires us to ¹live righteously. Many, when they first understand righteousness is a gift, conclude how we live no longer matters.

But it is only through ¹righteous living we are most aligned and in tune with God ⁵practically i.e. in our day to day practice; when we love others as we are designed to, and best put God on display - i.e. honor and glorify Him - through loving actions toward others. 

But these actions do not save us or make us more acceptable to God. 

He designed us to be aligned with his will in our everyday conduct, so we might:

1. experience more of Him and His love (John 14:21,23; 15:9-10) 

2. best honor and glorify Him before others. 

3. Advance His ⁵kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

These are the desired outcomes of the good standing He has fully secured for us and assigned to us in Christ. 

God grants (gifts) us a right legal standing, so we might live right. We don't live right to enhance our legal standing with Him (this has already been perfectly settled in and by Christ), but so we might partake of Him more fully and reflect Him more clearly in our everyday lives. 

He wants us to live righteously so we might more fully participate in His love, life, and joy, and pass it on to others more effectively. 

Why is this important? To make is more acceptable to God? No!

This brings more attention (honor) to Him, so others might be drawn to Him through us and thereby also find in Him fullness of life by means of our righteous conduct. This advances and establishes His righteous ⁵reign on earth. The very thing Christ taught his disciples to pray for.

"Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." - Matt 6:10 

The idea of being made right so we would live right is expressed in several places in scripture, but most often and clearly in Paul's letter to the Romans.

‭‭Romans 6:4 ESV‬‬

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

‭‭Romans 7:4 ESV‬‬

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (i.e. we are perfectly right with God in Christ). For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us..." - Rom ‭8:1‭-‬5‬

Each of the above 3 passages shows that the desired outcome of God making us right with Him (i.e., righteous before Him legally) is that we might live righteously. 

In fact, in several of Paul's letters (Ephesians, Colossians, ³Hebrews and Romans) the first part of these letters lays out what God has done for us regarding our unrighteous status - i.e. He has made us righteous in and through Christ.  The remaining part of each letter addresses how we are to conduct our lives in light of this and in response to it.

This is clearest in the entire book of Romans, where the first 11 chapters elaborate on our alienation from God and what He has done to restore us in Christ - i.e., the explanation of the good news ( the gospel - Rom 1:16 ). Then, from chapter 12 on, it shifts to how we conduct ourselves in light of this good news. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, (i.e. in light of what I have said up to this point regarding our dilemma and God's solution) to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable (well pleasing) to God, which is your spiritual worship. Rom 12:1

What is the appropriate response to Christ sacrificing His life to restore us back to His Father? Our becoming a living sacrifice in our everyday lives!

The ending phrase "spiritual worship" indicates this is a heartfelt response, not a rigid duty or legal requirement. 

A response to what? To God providing the righteousness, we must have to be in good standing with the Father, by assigning Christ's perfect standing with the Father to us.

Did only Paul address this? No, Peter, James, and John did as well.

"When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness i.e. in our everyday conduct..." - 1 Pet 2:23-24

This connection of our righteous status resulting in righteous conduct in our every day lives by multiple writers isn't a coincidence. Righteous living must always flow out of our right status with God (because we could never meet the requirements of living a perfectly righteous life unaided) i.e., righteous living will and must always flow out of a righteous standing before God. If it does not - if there is no fruit of righteous living - the scriptures call us to make sure we are truly His child. This is clearly implied and stated explicitly in the above and other passages. So much so that scripture tells us if how we live has not changed since we came to Christ, we need to be sure we truly know Him. 

For a further discussion on being right vs living right click here 

For a discussion on "working out" our salvation click here.

What is the good news? click here

______________________________________

Footnotes: 

¹What exactly is righteous living or living righteously? When our conduct is perfectly aligned with God's ⁴design and will.

And what is God's design (will) for us and all creation? That in everything we do and say we honor and glorify him. And in doing so, we also experience our greatest significance - glory. 

And how do we best honor and glorify him? By loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. Love (i.e. relationship) is the driving force of righteous conduct. Carrying out these commandments or living righteously - i.e. treating others as we wish to be treated - is the result. 

God's love for us is first, and our responding back to him in love is the result. We will not value or love God above all others until we first grasp and experience his value of us and love for us. 

God is the initiator and source of love. If we are not plugged into Him (His infinite love for us) and thereby drawing strength from Him, we can never be loving as we were designed to be. When we see and experience his love, we "light up," come to life, bear fruit, and become the true bearers of His image as we were created to be.  

God is the power supply, we are the conduits. He is the treasure, we are jars of clay. He is the vine, we are the branches.

Which comes first, our valuing and loving Him or Him valuing and loving us? We love him because he first loved us.

³There is good reason to believe Paul dictated the book of Hebrews to Luke, who wrote it. The way the letter flows and unfolds - the thorough knowledge of the OT - is characteristic of other letters by Paul (a well-studied Jewish Pharisee), not someone who is a Greek Gentile such as Luke. 

But the style and elegance of the Greek used in the book is indicative of Luke also seen in Acts and Lukes gospel. So some suggest Hebrews was a collaboration between Paul and Luke. 

There are other reasons some believe Paul dictated it. Primarily because, as far as we know, all but one of Paul's letters (including Hebrews) was dictated. Possibly because of poor eyesight from his being blinded by beholding Christ on the road to Damascus.

Also Luke was a highly educated Greek national and medical doctor, fluent in "high" Greek. 

Hebrews was written with grammatical precision, using several words unique to the book of Hebrews. This was uncharacteristic of Paul's other letters but similar to the gospel of Luke. For these reasons, some think Paul didn't write it but dictated it to Luke. Explaining why it has characteristics of both Paul and Luke. The fact that he considered himself the apostle to the Gentile adds even more credibility to this view. 

It is also believed Paul deliberately did not identify as the author since he was considered the apostle to the Gentiles and not looked upon favorably by the Judaizers from Jewish circles within the church. 

Some suggest Paul deliberately left his name off to avoid any resistance to the letters' reception and wide circulation within the Jewish community at large. After all, why would the apostle to the Gentiles be writing a letter to Hebrews?  

But Paul's love for his own people was clearly expressed in Romans chapter 9. Knowing this, it would make perfect sense that he still had an intense desire to reach his people even though God had called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. 

⁴this is given either as a direct order in writing, verbally, and by Christ's example - all of which are recorded in scripture.

⁵and advance His kingdom most. Our actions matter, either advancing or hindering God's kingdom. 

Whoever is not with me is against me

Every decision we make is a choice between doing something ¹God's way or my way - doing things to advance God's agenda (kingdom) or mine.  

Christ said it this way, "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters." 

There appears to be no in-between. This sounds pretty harsh until we dig in a little more.

Ultimately, the key underlying difference between God's way and ours is who do we depend on or trust ²more in our choices and the actions we take - God or ourselves?

 
Choosing our way feels natural and normal, i.e. it's our default setting. It's not necessarily conscious because it's all we know. It seems harmless and doesn't feel like a choice against God. 

But if we are designed to know and love God with all we are and have and in turn put Him on display in all we say and do - thereby making Him known - but do not, are we not rebels and enemies of God? Doing all things for the glory of God, love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and be holy because God is holy, is not hyperbole or casual statements. It is who God made us to be.

If God is the source of life, love, and all things, to take and use what God has created to advance our own designs and purposes without consideration of God's ³designs and purposes in giving us all things is an act of rebellion against God. It's not that God is a die-hard and doesn't want us to enjoy life. It is because he is life and there is no true and lasting joy apart from Him. 

Any joy we experience in life that is not in, by, or through Him is temporary. When we act contrary to this, our actions (or lack of action to honor Him) are saying to God - and anyone who knows and observes us - that God is irrelevant. When in fact He is just the opposite i.e. He is the most relevant and important being of all. To not act accordingly not only dishonors God and who He is, but it is living a lie that harms us and those we interact with. To pursue anything or anyone as if it or they are what life is all about is to point others away from the true Source of life i.e. God, who is the Creator of all things.

The reality is God is the most important being of all. Without Him, there would be nothing else i.e. all we are and have comes from His hand.

Paul said it this way, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen." ‭‭Rom‬ ‭11:36‬ ‭

If we bristle at this, it only confirms how subtle and deep our rebellion runs.

But when we stop and consider our life, most give little to no thought as to why God gives us all that we have - i.e. we rarely consider what part God plays in why He does. Instead we should be asking why He gives us life, breath, air to breathe, health, our abilities (physical, mental, athletic, artistic etc.), food, sunlight, rain, sight, taste, smell, hearing, natural resources, etc. and how we can use what he provides to give Him His rightful honor and thanks. 

Do you thank Him for all you are and have. If not, is this not an indication of rebellion towards Him who gives us all things?

This would be like our child misusing the things that we as parents have labored to acquire and provide, with little or no regard by them of our wishes as the parent. This can result in the child's harm and/or harm to others and often does (like when a child uses and wrecks their parent's car injuring themselves or others).

It's not that a loving parent doesn't want their child to enjoy and use what they provide. A loving parent loves their child and wants them to feel their love. That is the goal behind their providing what they do. A loving parent wants what's best for them.   

But a loving parent also does not want their child to be ⁴harmed. And as a parent with much more life experience (i.e. a better understanding of good and evil if you will), they know us better than we do and how to better use and benefit from what they provide. 

With our heavenly parent, it is far more significant! He knows better than we do what is best for us. He is what is best because all things are by, though, for Him, which is also our greatest joy.

No matter how little we consider God as we go about our lives, the reality is all that we are and have not only comes from God but is maintained by him. Without God, nothing would be, including ourselves, with all the unique abilities we were born with. 

In reality we hate to acknowledge this. It grates against us and every fiber of our being because we do not want to be accountable to an all Supreme Being for our choices and actions. 

Considering what God wants is not only the right thing to do but is best for us and others. Who would know what is best for us and how to use what God provides better than Himself? Us!?! Unless, of course, you don't trust Him. And isn't that precisely the issue, our distrust?

We should always seek to use what he provides as He desires and directs. Not because he needs to be in charge (He already is) but because he knows what is best and wants that best for us.

For a discussion on why God allows evil click here and here.

For a discussion on why God loves rebels click here

_____________________________

¹This was the essence of the choice presented to Adam (primarily) and Eve on whether to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

²And what exactly is it that we should trust? That God not only knows what is best but desires what is best for us. And what He desires He can fully accomplish, i.e. He's all-powerful. In short, we trust that God loves us and knows what is best better than we do and perfectly able to bring all this about.

³And what exactly are those designs? For us - His image bearers - to be the caretakers of His creation, and be fruitful and multiply. 

Why? So that we can enter into and partake of the good gifts of God and extend them to others. Our extending them to others enables us to more fully partake of who God is and designed us to be for His honor i.e. glory.

Why? Because God loves us and his creation and wants us to experience the joy of being in a relationship of love with Him like He has experienced from all eternity past between the Father and Son, in, through, and by the Spirit. i.e. He desires we partake of the joy and delight of receiving and giving love in the same way He does. 

For a fuller discussion on the above, click here. 

All that we are and have is designed and intended to aid us in participating in and experiencing the eternal joy and bliss between the Father and His Son in, through, and by the Spirit. We, however are rebellious creatures who use God's creation to do just the opposite, i.e. to attempt to be independent of God. If we persist He honors our choice along with the consequences. 

⁴This does not mean God will not allow us to experience short-term pain. He often does so we might experience long-term gain. 

Seeing God's love in our pain

"that I may know him (Christ) and the fellowship of his suffering's…" - Phil 3:10

What is the "fellowship" of Christ's sufferings that Paul desires to take part in - and we, by his example, are also invited to partake in? 

Whatever it is, we must participate in (experience) the "fellowship of his sufferings" if we are to have a deeper understanding of Christ, i.e., who he is, what he did, and why he did it. This is directly connected to knowing him better, as indicated by the above opening comment "...that I may know him..."

What about our suffering? How does it help us to see and know Christ better? 

Stated simply, if we are to know and appreciate Christ more fully and the depth of His love, we must see and enter into Christ's suffering through our own, i.e. we share in (fellowship with) His pain through ours. The more we suffer the greater opportunity we have to understand and appreciate the suffering Christ went through for us.

But how are our pain and experiencing Christ's love connected?

Our pain helps us to more fully understand, appreciate, and sympathize with Christ's pain. The greater our pain, the greater our potential understanding of Christ's, i.e. we can relate to Christ's pain better because of our own. 

Whenever we are in pain, we should reflect on Christ's ³struggles and all the spiritual, emotional, and physical pain he went through for us. Our pain should remind us of His (this is also why we are called to remember Him in communion. It is a reminder of the pain Christ went through for us). The more pain we experience the more deeply we can "enter into" and partake of His - if we choose to and let it.

The more we see and enter into His pain through our own, the more we can also see the depth of his love that moved Christ to suffer on our behalf. 

Seeing the depths of his love in turn causes us to love him more.  

If you wish to love him more, be grateful for your pain (instead of complaining about it), if only because of how it can reveal to you Christ and the immense depth of His love for you more fully. How? By His embracing the pain you and I deserved - that He did not deserve - so we might see and experience His immense love even more.

To expand this further, the more we see His pain, (ultimately caused by us choosing to be our own "god" - when we are not) the more fully and deeply we see the ¹greatness of His love that moved Him to embrace our pain (and the consequences of the pain we cause others) so He might free us from condemnation rightfully due us for the harm/pain we cause others. 

Grasping the depth of Christ's pain rarely happens without us first going through our own pain. The greater ²our pain, the more fully - and the greater the opportunity for us to appreciate ²His i.e. we are better able to understand and "fellowship" with Him in His sufferings through our own suffering, and thereby also more fully enter His love. 

Pain is a two-way street for both Christ and us

We are also reminded that because of his pain, he understands and appreciates ours better as well. He can better fellowship with us in our pain because of His own i.e., we are united with Christ in and through our mutual suffering. 

Amazingly, Christ chose to identify with us in this way! We will have this in common with Him throughout eternity and will be reminded of this - of His immense love for us - every time we look upon Him and behold the scars He carries and experienced for us.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Heb 4:15-16

Pain can help produce two overriding positive outcomes if we let it. 

1. It can humble us by revealing the depths of our need and inability to cope with the pain alone, i.e., without God.

2. It can cause us to more fully appreciate the sufferings of Christ and the greatness of his love that moved him to suffer on our behalf.

These are two vital reasons we should never shrink back from pain and suffering, but instead be thankful for it. In doing so, this enables us to more fully see and take part in his great love.

If you want to know your level of trust in Christ and the strength of your love for Him, ask yourself how much pain are you willing to go through for His sake? 

This is a question Christ asked of himself while suffering for us, and he answered with a resounding "whatever it takes." His willingly going to the cross for you and me was the result of His saying yes to pain. 

How much pain am I willing to go through for His sake?... is a question we may wish to ask ourselves. One I ask myself often.     

Christ asked that question and answered by giving up his life, and allowing this to disrupt His eternal union with the Father. 

"“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.."

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

For a further discussion of how God uses evil for our good click here...and here. 

The greater the evil, the greater the opportunity for healing/ grace click here.

For a discussion on the key lesson from the book of Job click here.

____________________________________

¹When people question the goodness and love of God because of all the pain in the world (including their own) they miss the bigger picture and cannot see that Christ took on the pain of the world and let it kill him so he might ultimately free the world and us from it. Pain is not the final word regarding evil. Life in the resurrected Christ is!

 

The big question isn't why there is suffering and why God allows good people to suffer, but why God allowed Christ - the best and only perfect person - to suffer. 

And maybe a more important question... what is the Father saying to us and about us by allowing it? Hint...He loves us that much.

Until we answer these questions, we can never fully understand, accept, and willingly (gratefully) embrace our own pain and the world's pain. 

We are so jaded towards God that we forget that God so loved the world that he gave. The greatness of love is measured by the greatness of the gift and the sacrifice one is willing to make to give it, i.e. the more the gift costs, the greater the evidence of the giver's love.

And what did God give? His very own Son (think of Abraham being asked and willing to sacrifice his son Isaac). The Son of his infinite and eternal affections. 

Christ's death was not barbaric; it was an expression of extreme love and a willingness to take on our suffering so we might be forever free from it... But only if we will accept His offer.

If we do not, there is no other solution!

The whole notion that the infinite and all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of everything would take on human form and even consider going through undeserved pain for our benefit is mind-boggling when we stop and reflect deeply on this. 

After reading this, I encourage you to do just that. Think deeply about these things often. Ask God to give you a fuller vision and understanding of His love for you through His and your pain. Let them seep deeply into your very being and transform you and your love for God. 

The Father and Son fully understand pain because they fully embraced and experienced it themselves. The Father embraced the pain of giving up the Son of His eternal affections, and the Son embraced His greatest pain by allowing it to separate him from the eternal affection of His Father for a time. This "severing" of their relationship was a far greater pain than any physical suffering.

The only reason that people continue in pain after this life is that they refuse to see and receive God's remedy, which is Christ and all He suffered (willingly) at the hands of ungrateful and wicked men for our sake.

"For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt." - Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV

²Particularly for condemnation, persecution, and rejection.

³Has someone closest to you ever betrayed you? Have you ever had anyone twist your words, misrepresent you, speak ill of you, or not come through on their commitments or promises to you? Have you ever been unappreciated for sacrificial service to others? Have you ever had anybody forsake you in your greatest hour of need? Christ experienced these and far more, with one big difference. He never complained and did nothing to deserve it. And He did all this for us so we wouldn't have to. And to also honor His Father.