TRIALS,
CONFIDENCE IN
WE WERE on a ministry cruise to Alaska, spending time with some of the folks who support the Urban Alternative, when a storm broke out. It was a wicked storm. The worst storm some of the crew had ever seen. There were squalls, waves up to forty feet high. We are on a cruise liner and it was being tossed around like a tin can.
So my wife started getting a little bit evangelically ticked off. We had found out that the captain knew we were going to hit the storm, but he had to get back because he had paying customers that he had to pick up for the next cruise. So it was a business deal for him. My wife was very concerned and irritated that he would inconvenience our passengers like this. People were throwing up, the plates were falling all over the place, and everyone was a wreck. It was a wicked situation.
My wife picked up the phone and asked the operator to connect her with the captain.
“Well, I am sorry. The captain is tied up on the bridge now with this storm. He can’t speak to you.”
“Well, I just don’t understand why he would put us through this, knowing the storm is coming.”
“Well, I’ll deliver the message, but he can’t talk to you.”
We get a call back in a few minutes. It was the assistant captain.
He said, “I was given your message, and we will gave it to the captain. The captain has two responses. One, go to sleep. You can go to sleep because I am staying up. You can’t do anything from the cabin so go to sleep and know that I am staying up. The second thing is, this ship was built with this storm in mind.” He said, “I know it looks bad, but when we built this boat, we knew this day was going to come out here on this water, and we’ve already taken that into consideration. This storm did not catch us by surprise, and though it’s inconvenient, and though it’s rough, though it’s difficult, you can still go to sleep because the boat can handle the storm.”
I don’t know what God is letting you go through, but His message to you today is go to sleep, because I am staying up. He has orchestrated your life so that you can withstand whatever trials He has allowed to come through.981
[Temptation]
1 Cor. 10:13
ONE of the things I love for my wife to cook over the holidays is 7-Up Cake. This cake will make a grown man cry. She gets out butter, but if I tried to eat the butter on its own, it would make me sick. It has no inherent tasty value just as butter, but she throws it into the mixer. She gets out the sugar. Now, I do like a little sugar, but if I were to take all of that sugar in, it would only make me sick. She takes the sugar and throws that into the mixer too. She gets out the flour. I would never eat the flour by itself but she throws that into the mixer. She takes a little of this, and a little of that, and throws it into the mixer. She turns the mixer on and, all of a sudden, those independent agents that were no good by themselves are intermingled with one another. They then form this gooey substance, this paste, this batter. Now, the dough is better than the independent elements. I remember growing up as a boy and licking the batter from the bowl. But even as good as the batter is, it’s still not good enough. I have never eaten a whole bowl of batter!
My wife then pours that batter into a pan and sets it in a fire. All of a sudden, that batter that was in a cool environment is now set aflame by 350-degree heat, and it sits in there minute after minute. I know if that batter could talk, it would probably ask to be taken out of the fire because of the heat. However, the batter would need to know that it isn’t simply being cooked; it is being created and remade into something else. My wife’s goal was to take various ingredients and make something beautiful of them.
I can tell you, when the cake comes out of the oven, I could be in the back bedroom, but I will smell the cake and get levitated into the kitchen. My wife takes all things, mixes them together, and it comes out finger-licking good.
God is not just cooking us when we feel the heat. He’s not just raising the temperature of our circumstances in order to make us suffer. He’s up to something. He’s taking the random pieces of our lives and making something out of it. We need to know that our problems will be used of God. We need to know that our disappointments are going to be used by God. We need to know that our pain is going to be used of God. We must trust that our singleness is going to be used by God. We must believe that the doctor’s reports will be used by God.
We know these things, not because we can prove it but because we know Him. We must believe that He ultimately is after our good and that all of our life’s circumstances will work together accordingly.982
[Trials, Purpose of]
Rom. 8:28; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7