WHAT TO MAKE OF ALL THE TROUBLE
When we see trouble, don’t focus on trouble. Ask, “What deeper thing is God doing?”
These are strange times; unlike any I have seen in my lifetime. There are so many uncertainties and we seem to be focused on all the trouble. There is political trouble. Marital and family troubles. Church troubles and trouble within our own souls. In Matthew 6.22, Jesus tells us the eye is the entrance to your heart and mind.
Focus on trouble and you will be troubled
Not that we are to be blind to trouble. We are to be aware of trouble. Jesus was careful to explain to His disciples the trouble that would come with the end. In Matthew 24, He said there would be wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, and this would be just the beginning. They should expect to be tortured, killed, and hated by all nations. False prophets would arise and there would be mass deception.
Jesus said these troubles were to function as a sign to them (and us) that God is up to something much bigger! They were to be a signpost to the deeper work of God in our midst.
Matthew 24.30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (NIV)
Similarly, the apostle Paul was aware of his troubles. In 2 Corinthians 11, he has a long list of troubles he has endured. He was constantly in danger. To top it off, in chapter 12, he speaks of a thorn in his flesh that he prayed three times would be removed. That trouble, however, was not his focus. All that trouble, he learned, was to point him to a much bigger and deeper work that God was doing in Paul.
In 2 Corinthians 12.9 he writes, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (NIV)
God at work in our trouble
The deeper work of God happening in Paul is that God was teaching Paul about His sufficient grace. His troubles were but a signpost directing Paul to great trust in God’s strength when he felt weak.
When we see trouble, don’t focus on trouble. Ask, “What deeper thing is God doing? Towards what might this trouble be pointing me?”
I have found in the midst of our national troubles, God is redirecting the focus of many in His Church. I would love to hear your comments on what redirecting you may have discerned. Please post and share.