[Let] no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this. For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know. – 1 Thessalonians 3:3-4
We, as Christians, have to live with a tension between the
grace of God, His protection and provision, and constant tribulation. There are probably Christians who don’t have
any trouble. The late R.W. Schambach used
to say, “You don’t have any trouble. All
you need is faith in God.” I know what
he meant. We do have trouble, and faith
gets us through it. It’s like Paul
saying that our present light afflictions are nothing compared to the weight of
the eternal glory these afflictions are working out for us.
As quoted above, Paul is writing to the church at
Thessalonica to encourage them. They had
heard that the Apostle was undergoing difficulties and persecution. The question naturally arises in the minds
of some people as to why such a good and godly man, a chosen and highly favored
minister of the New Covenant in Christ should be suffering maltreatment and
reversals.
One of my oldest and best friends is an Assembly of God preacher. We are practically brothers. W go by the same given name. Though we are currently separated by close to
a thousand miles, if he and his wife needed something or if we did, we would do
whatever it takes to get there to help or they to get here. He, his wonderful wife, and their two adult
daughters are all dedicated to serving the Lord in full-time ministry. They have all kinds of turmoil, sickness, and
financial difficulties. They are better
people than I will ever be, yet I couldn’t get sick if I wanted to and I have
no debt and adequate money. Someday I
might even get to retire. They live in a
bad area of the country in a rented house in a questionable neighborhood. By comparison, my situation is paradise.
Nevertheless, I know that they have the “favor of God”, as
people like to say. Would I trade my
situation for theirs? Perhaps I answered
that question twenty-five years ago when I decided that I was not called to be
a pastor or minister of any kind, not so much because I feared the trials as
because somebody has to plow the corn.
By that time I had met too many preachers who would have made fairly
good shoe salesmen.
Paul didn’t want his friends to be discouraged because of what
was going on with them or with him. God’s
protection doesn’t always look much like protection from the world’s
perspective. In fact, sometimes it looks
as though God has abandoned or is in hiding from those who most earnestly seek
Him.
God sometimes cloaks Himself, coming to us in places and
ways and guises such that we are apt to miss Him if we are not alert and
aware. Our afflictions may be the way
through which He gives us new insights, enables us to make new connections, and
opens new doors. He slows us down, keeps
us back from some major disaster through a minor one. We never know, but we can know that He will
see us through and that He will never leave or forsake us. No matter the result, no matter the apparent
triumph of evil in the temporal realm, we are victorious in eternity.
