(In case you missed it, Kate's out of town, and then Nate's family will be in town, so instead of all the blogging responsibilities falling to me, we pre-wrote some blogs to post here. The first is here, explaining the series. The other posts include 1. Sovereignty 2. Prayer 3. Community)
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A dear sister of ours here in
Beersheva shared a great piece of counsel with us recently. We were sharing
things we could be praying for one another and one thing I had asked was for
prayer to be content with the circumstances we were in, in this case, having no
children. In my temptation to take control of my own life, I would just put my
head down and say that I am ok with not ever being able to get pregnant. Though
I’m not sure how true that really was, what she shared with me brought
encouragement. She talked about how it doesn’t mean that I have to say that I
am content with NEVER being pregnant, I just have to be content with it today.
To ask for grace each day to be content in whatever state I am in. I confess it
is much easier (in a fleshly, controlling sense) to say that I am ok with the
NEVER, it makes me less vulnerable and gives me more control. Saying I will
NEVER have something is the same as saying I will DEFINITELY have something,
it’s an attempt to take things into my hands.
So as I
thought about what she had said I begin to think about what it means to be
content. Hebrew 12:1-3 says, “ Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of
witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin
which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith,
who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has
sat down at the right hand of God. For consider Him who has endured such
hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose
heart.”
Here we see
that Jesus Himself endured the cross and despised the shame.
Scripture doesn’t say that He enjoyed the cross, and we know from Luke’s gospel
account that as Jesus prayed in the garden before going to the cross, He was in
agony. Jesus endured the cross, for the joy
set before Him. The joy that He could see but that had not yet been
consummated. I don’t think being content means we have to enjoy our
circumstances, or deny them by saying we are okay with it, I think it means
that we endure them. We endure them for Christ, who is the Joy set before us,
and even though we can see Him, we have not yet taken part in the fullness of
that joy. We yearn for that coming joy, that day when all things will be made
new. We endure the suffering in this life because we hope in the coming joy. I
don’t think we have to enjoy singleness, loneliness, childlessness, sickness,
dryness, but I think we endure them because we know what is coming. We know
that even though we are commanded to work out our salvation with fear and
trembling, we rest in the fact that it is God who is at work in us to will and
to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). We know that He is working
these things for our good (for those of us who are His), and for His own glory.
Contentment is not enjoying pain, or even denying the fact that it hurts,
rather it is worshipping Jesus in the midst of it. When there is not perceived
good in our circumstances, we rest in knowing that the God who ordains them is
good. There isn’t joy in miscarriage- it’s painful. Denying the suffering of
childlessness doesn’t make Christ greater- it denies the grace He gives to
sustain us. He sustains us in sorrow and gives us grace to endure. We draw our
strength from fixing our eyes on Him, the victor!
The most
glorious thing about this passage is that Jesus has sat down at the right hand
of the Father. It is done, and we have victory in Him. Though we are afflicted,
we are not crushed, though we are struck down, we are not destroyed, though we
are persecuted, we are not abandoned. (2 Corinthians 4:9).
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