Widow for a Season: Finding
Your Identity in Christ
Chapter Six: Where is God?
Summary:
To misunderstand the role of suffering and death in God’s greater plan
can create anger and bitterness that build a wall between the widow and the God
of her provision. In this chapter
we will attempt to get into the mind of God and His perspective through
scripture so that the widow can receive these experiences with understanding.
Excerpt:
Chapter
Six - Where
is God?
The
subjects of death and suffering are sobering. Most of us prefer to spend
time planning and thinking about living, not dying. We become caught up in
daily life as if we will be here forever and often become greedy and
lustful for the temporary things this life has to offer. Consequently, our
spiritual life may seem gray compared to the brilliant but quickly fading
colors of the world around us. Furthermore, we develop a false sense of
control. Because we have
forgotten life’s temporary nature we are startled when God calls a loved
one into eternity. We should
be well prepared for this inevitable event, but even though death and
suffering are very much a part of God’s plan, few are ready.
So what are we to do when the reality of death becomes our reality?
What eternal perspective should we embrace?
First of all, it is important to allow time to mourn and grieve the
loss of a spouse; it is healthy to do so. There may be days for the rest
of our lives that will bring tears that cannot be dried, but we mustn’t
allow our grief to
destroy us or to become an unquenchable bitterness. The Lord wants to use
us in His kingdom work. If we allow ourselves to become mired in our
grief, we will be useless in the task for which these experiences were
intended to equip us. Satan would like for us to respond to our situation
as if God had assaulted us personally. Death and suffering will always
bring pain, but if we can learn how to accept them by assuming an eternal
point of view, they will not defeat us. It all depends on how we choose to
respond to our experience.
As
always, if we are to gain an understanding of God’s perspective, we must
go to His Word. We cannot gain the reality of who God is from our
imagination, what we have heard about Him, or what we wish Him to be. When
someone says, “The God I know would never let something like this
happen,” it suggests they do not really know God. What the Scriptures
say about suffering and death comes from a very different perspective. Let
us review some of the passages that present God’s viewpoint. There is a
great difference between God’s allowing an event to happen and His
causing the event.
