Living With Uncertainty
âGod whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pain.â âC.S. Lewis
Tragedy, illness, unforeseeable loss and pain will impact all of us. Isnât that a reassuring truth? I donât know anyone who would deliberately sign up for opportunities to suffer. Yet, God uses these experiences to accomplish his purposes in and through us. Though living with uncertainty will test the faith of even the most mature Christian, we ought not to be frightened. We know who holds all things together.
What does it mean for a Christian to be faced with an uncertain future? How do we reconcile, for example, the healing of one and the seemingly unanswered prayers for another? The Lord has not left us without answers in his Word, nor has he left us alone in our suffering. The Scriptures give us instructions for the management of the pain we invariably encounter. And they really work, as Iâve found out.
Beyond these, we need to accept the mysteries of his plan for us as humans. God is sovereign. He may choose a path for us that we would not choose for ourselves. In all of this, however, we have him as our resource and our peace. The bottom line is that we have security in the knowledge of the Lordâs plan for us to spend eternity with him. Nothing can ultimately vanquish us, and thatâs good news, folks.
When we are faced with overwhelming circumstances, we find ourselves asking God to overrule the natural consequences of our pain. We want miracles, yet we also know that everything will ultimately be made right when we enter our eternal home with the Lord. How do we deal with that tension?
Suppose a father dies and leaves, as part of his will, an unbelievably huge fortune to his children. His heirs are rich â with just one caveat â they canât touch the money until they come of age. They are stuck, in a sense, between the already of their inheritance and the not yet of their age.
What if, however, they had the ability to borrow from their inheritance? They would be borrowing what is already theirs â they would just be getting it early.
That is our situation: It is a fact that ultimately we will all be healed and freed from everything that oppresses us. So when we ask God to heal the sick or free the demonized, we are simply asking that God do now what he has promised to do in the future. Jesusâ model prayer, âGive us today our daily bread,â (Matthew 6:11) can also be translated, âGive us tomorrowâs bread today.â We are asking, in essence, to borrow today from the Lord what is guaranteed to us tomorrow.
To better cope with the adversity that is part of our Christian lives, we need to understand that while tomorrowâs bread is available to us today when we ask, God is sovereign. He determines whether or not to grant us what we ask for now â or later.
John Wimber, Living With Uncertainty (Anaheim: Vineyard Ministries International, 1996), 3-5.
Get John Wimber resources here.
::
Want To Share This?
Copy and paste the following to social media:
John Wimber on Living With Uncertainty: “God is sovereign. He may choose a path for us that we would not choose for ourselves. In all of this, however, we have Him as our resource and our peace. The bottom line is that we have security in the knowledge of the Lordâs plan for us to spend eternity with Him. Nothing can ultimately vanquish us, and thatâs good news, folks.”
Read More: https://bit.ly/2kplOcL#JohnWimber #VineyardUSA #Vineyard #VineyardGlobalFamily
