The End Intended By The Lord

We don't often understand God's timing when we are crying out for help, healing, or deliverance from some situation and nothing seems to change quickly. It is just one more area where His ways are higher than our way and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (see Isaiah 55:9). While there are many times when prayer is manifestly answered in a short space of time, and even times when God's answer comes while we're still speaking and making that request, many more times it seems that waiting is required. I have found that it makes all the difference in the midst of trials and uncertainty to know that God is good, and to be convinced by His word that in the life of those whose hearts are set upon Him nothing is sent or permitted without His redeeming purpose. Indeed He has promised to cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him (see Romans 8:28). Nothing could be more sure.

Below are some snippets to encourage you to continue to call upon the Lord and to wait on Him, eagerly expecting His promise to be fulfilled in your life.

Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."
Genesis 50:19-20

Joseph was cruelly betrayed by his brothers, separated from his father as a teenager, sold into slavery, falsely accused by an adulterous woman, imprisoned in a dungeon, forgotten by those he helped - until God's time arrived to place Joseph in a position of great power and authority that was the means of preserving the entire nation of Israel. His godly love forgiveness, and tenderness of heart towards his brothers upon the revelation of his true identity many years later only served to prove that his heart and emotions had also been healed from all he had suffered. His recorded life after that point showed how God had recompensed him for enduring years of trial with reunion with his father and family, a household of his own, and great authority, wealth, and favor with God and with man for all the remainder of his days.

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
James 5:11

Job was an upright man who diligently obeyed the Lord and revered Him in His holiness, even making sacrifices for the atonement of his children's sins 'just in case' they had sinned in their house parties. He was generous to the poor and to his friends, and full of wisdom. Then satan was granted permission to tempt him, bringing staggering disaster, death, and sickness to Job's life. Yet Job did not sin against God. He wrestled with understanding the ways of God but when God did answer, Job was awed by a fuller understanding of the greatness of His God. And God used him as a vessel for mercy to his friends who had not spoken what was right about the Lord. The remainder of Job's days were days of restored happiness, family, and even greater wealth than he had ever had before. God's intended end for Job certainly touched more lives than ever before by his testimony in the land of Ur among strangers, his friends and family, and to all who gain comfort from this portion of the Scriptures all these thousands of years later.

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."
John 9:1-3

All sin has consequences, and sometimes that includes physical afflictions (see John 5:13-15), yet not all afflictions are the result of sin. This man born blind from birth was marvelously healed (and saved from sin!) by his encounter with Jesus at the point of his need, and became an undeniable example of the power and grace of God to the people and Pharisees. In the same way, God will allow or prepare situations through which He will display Himself to you and others in ways that bring Him glory, and accomplish good for you.

Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”
John 11:3-7,14

Bad things do happen to good people. But just as in this case with Lazarus' illness and subsequent death, which Jesus even wept over openly, having to endure suffering does not mean that God does not love us. When God's power was displayed in raising Lazarus from the dead after four days of burial, He became an irrefutable witness that Jesus Christ had power and authority from God even over death, to give life. This act not only caused many other lives to be saved, but would have sealed the truths about resurrection and hope that Jesus had taught to many of his disciples up to that point - comfort which would have been needed during this time which was only shortly before His own death and resurrection.

Be encouraged! If you love God and have set your heart and hope upon Him, every trial which you have not been quickly rescued from will also serve a higher purpose for God's glory and your good. Remain steadfast and immovable upon His word. When your help, deliverance, and restoration comes, the pain of the present days will no more be felt - only remembered in such a way that your heart rejoices with gratitude and awe towards the LORD.  Facebook
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