Glory Meets Suffering

Belinda Kersey 3/25/12

The Song
The Hurt & The Healer by MercyMe

God’s Word
Ecclesiastes 7:14-15 “When times are good, be happy;  but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.  Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:  the righteous perishing in their righteousness,  and the wicked living long in their wickedness.

My Thoughts
After a decade of living with weakness and disease, you would think I would tire of asking the question “Why?”.  It is true that I ask it far less than in the beginning.  But some moments it reverberates in my soul and mind.  I no longer shout it to the heavens in anguish as often happened in the first days of my disability.  There are times when I see someone in seemingly perfect health but in obvious rebellion to God and I whisper, “why”.  Even the wisest man known to exist, King Solomon, asked “why?” repeatedly in the book of Ecclesiastes. He had the same thoughts I had-why do the righteous, the good, perish and the wicked are allowed a long life?

But, as the song says, “The healing doesn’t come from the explained”.  Even if God were to speak from heaven and give me the answers to my every “why?”, I would not find my healing in the answers.  So to find my purpose and to make sense of my suffering, I must turn to Him and say, “Jesus please don’t let this go in vain.”  In other words, let my pain have a purpose.  Let my life of praise despite disability minister to another soul.

And how does He answer that prayer?  “Even though a part of me has died, He  takes my heart and breathes it back to life.”!  He wants to do that for each of His children who suffer.  To those who say  “Breathe, sometimes I feel it’s all that I can do. (I have) pain so deep that I can hardly move.”  He says, just keep your eyes completely fixed on Me!”  My friend, that is “the moment when humanity is overcome by majesty.  When grace is ushered in for good  and all our scars are understood.”  In other words, “when the hurt and the healer collide.”

What is causing hurt in your life?  Do you think it caught God by surprise?  Did He fall off His throne because your world was shattered?  No, my Father saw your beginning to end even before you breathed your first breath.  He knows the answers to your “why?”.  He has already seen the day “when mercy takes its rightful place and all these questions (will) fade away”.  He has seen the moment “When out of (our) weakness we (will) bow and hear (Him) say ‘It’s over now’.” 

Dear one,  I wait for that day when my full healing comes.  As I’ve said before, if that healing is accomplished on this earth or perfected in heaven, it matters not one whit to my faith.  To quote another beloved song, my God “holds my every moment and calms my every fear.  He walks with me through fire and He heals all my disease.”*  I trust in Him, I trust in Him!

Your Response
The end of this song offers the perfect prayer for you today, “Jesus come and break my fear, awake my heart and take my tears.  Find Your glory even here”.

*Healer by Hillsong