God, His Sovereignty and Providence: Part 3

God, His Sovereignty and Providence: Part 3

While God’s providence and all He does is for His glory [Isaiah 43:7] and for His name’s sake [Psalm 106:8, Ezekiel 20:44], it is also for our joy.  “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” said the Lord Jesus in John 15:11. He is intentional to give us joy. What things had he spoken to them about for the end that their joy may be full? Immediately preceding this, the Lord had spoken about bearing fruit showing that believers are branches that should have well matured and tasty fruit to be picked. But one cannot be fruitful without being pruned. In the same context He spoke about pruning which is evidently painful and may leave a scar on the tree.  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” [John 15:2]. 

We saw that providence means seeing beforehand but that does not mean that he only sees things in advance. He not only does that but is also sovereign and in control of every single future event causing it to accomplish His own will. We have also seen that pruning [suffering] is for us to be more fruitful but are there other reasons that the Lord in His providence causes us to go through suffering? Yes, there are but before we look at them it is important to see where the heart of God is in all these.

He is not ruthless “Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion because of the greatness of His unfailing love. For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow” [Lamentations 3:32-33, NLT]. He takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner, “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” [Ezekiel 18:32, KJV] therefore He calls for repentance. Turn yourselves and live ye. You see brothers and sisters, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” [2 Peter 3:9 see Psalm 8, Psalm 144:3, Job 7:17].  

Suffering tests the genuineness of our faith

1 Peter1:3-7 shows the intended result for tests is “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. Sufferings are not meant as an examination meant to fail us, they are sanctioned by God for it says, “No temptation has overtaken you that is unusual for human beings. But God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation He will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it” [1 Corinthians 10:13]. Sufferings are examinations and it is good to know that our examiner helps and gives us everything we need to pass.

Murray says, “It is the trial that determines the authenticity of our faith”. Those that fall away due to trials show that they were never rooted in Christ in the first place. In His providence, the Lord Jesus gave us this lesson in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:20-21, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away”. 

Temptations are to expose our sins [talk of a rude awakening]

Many people do not know the deceitfulness of their hearts. Just listen to believers who say they follow their heart and you will see we still have a long way to go. Peter thought he was stronger than all the disciples when he disputed the Lord Jesus saying he would never deny Him. But before the rooster crowed twice, he had denied the Him thrice and wept bitterly. His sin was exposed to him. [Matthew 14:72, 26:75]. 

David’s sin was exposed also. “But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O LORD, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.” [2 Samuel 24:10]. We have the benefit of hind knowledge where we know what happened behind the scenes because we have been given some inside information that God enticed him by using Satan to tempt David, but king David did not have that knowledge [2 Samuel 24:1, 1 Chronicles 21:1] when he was going through that. We also do not know but this is why it is important for every believer to trust God, His wisdom and why He does the things He does. We do not know what good He is doing right now through the trials and temptations and suffering but we can be sure that He is working all things for good for us who love Him.

Jesus also said something we also do not hear much of from the pulpit these days. He said, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes!” [Matthew 18:7]. The NKJV reads, “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offenses come”. He said “it is necessary that temptations come”. For the work of God to be done, offences, temptations must come. They help expose our sins so that we can humbly kneel before the feet of Jesus to seek His mercies. For most of us, as we struggle against sin, it is important to know that “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” [Hebrews 12:4] but He helps us when we are weak.  

Having his sin exposed Job said, “Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” [Job 42:6]. 

Suffering produces character

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” [Romans 5:3].

Paul is not being mean or stoic when he says we rejoice in our sufferings. What he rejoices in is the knowledge that God will be working something in us through the suffering. And suffering comes to all people, believers or not. Andrew Fuller says the natural reality that “Afflictions refine some, they consume others”. It is when one suffers that you really know whether he or she is a true believer. Suffering produces character and knowing my own, I can see that I am still a long way to go. John J. Murray writes, “A sculptor  working at a piece of marble when asked: ‘What are you doing?’ replied, ‘I am chipping away everything that does not look like a horse’. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” [Hebrews 12:11]. We see another fruit worth picking from the branch of the vine there: righteousness. 

Suffering causes us to Rely on God

The world we are living in teaches us to believe in ourselves and to trust in our own inner strength. It tells us if we believe we are great then we will attract greatness. But Paul and his companions had a different understanding of self and what they were capable of doing on their own. “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” he said in [2 Corinthians 1:9]. Rather than rely on our own abilities we need to be “… sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” [Philippians 1:6]. He is not finished with you yet but it is set that He will finish it.  

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of the exceptional nature of these revelations, a thorn was given to me and placed in my body. It was Satan's messenger to keep on tormenting me so that I would not become conceited”.  If we look at that statement, we will see that the thorn in his flesh was given [gift] for him not to be proud. Surely that is not why Satan designs trials and persecutions for us. Satan wants us to be proud like him and to self-exalt by showing that we know it all. But the thorn was ministering to Paul so that he remains humble and not sin. O, there are so many books today where people do the opposite and write what “they saw”. 

Suffering makes us know God better

It is one thing to know God theoretically and it is another to know Him. Many know things about God but they do not know God. They have heard about God but they have not heard God or seen Him. This is why Paul said, “that I may know Him” [Philippians 3:10]. But Paul knew it wasn’t about claiming that only. One had to go through suffering. Here is the full verse: “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death”. He knew it just was not the head knowledge of God which was needed but to know Him, he had to know the power of His resurrection. It means he had to share in His sufferings and become like Him in His death. For us to be like Christ, we have to walk the same path that He walked as well. Suffering kills sin and when sin is dead, we live for His glory and have full joy in Him.

There are many other reasons God allows suffering in a believer’s life but let me end this series with the example of Job. We all know the book of Job starts by telling us that he was a righteous man ‘… and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil’ [Job 1:1] and his righteousness was just like that of someone who has just been born again today or like someone who has loved the Lord for fifteen years. But he still needed to know God. At the end of the book he himself says, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” [Job 42:5]. 

I am pretty sure when he heard of God by the ear, he believed and was saved for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord [Romans 10:17]. But for Job to see God, the Lord had to make him pass through suffering and the result of that was Job declaring, ‘But now my eye sees You’. Suffering draws us closer to God. It is through suffering that he was able to see God and there is nothing worth more than seeing God, becoming like Jesus in His death. For those who die like Him, will live as He lives.  

“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” [James 5:11]

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About The Author:

Pastor Sam Machacka is co-founder of Brink Ministries Southern Africa. A wonderful colleague and good friend. Equipping Pastors and Church leaders in Southern Africa. He grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe with his beautiful wife Mildred and they are blessed with three lovely children namely Samantha, Munashe and Joshua but they are now serving as missionaries in Malawi since August 2018.

Please Note: If you have any queries you can email the author, Pastor Sam Machaka. Please be respectful in your emails and comments . Thank you.

Email: BrinkSouthernAfrica@gmail.com