We are being educated for eternity, and the life of faith is a long lesson in obedience — learning to suffer God’s will, to accept whatever happens, and to endure in hope. Practically speaking this means “laying aside” your desires and surrendering yourself — all that is within you — in trust of God’s plan for your life, even (and especially) in the most harrowing of moments… Indeed, in light of suffering what we really need is perseverance, or what the New Testament calls hupomone (ὑπομονή), a word that means “remaining [μένω] under [ὑπο]” the Divine Presence while being tested (the word “suffer” comes from the Latin word sufferre, from sub- (under) + ferre, to carry, and therefore denotes “bearing under” difficulty). Laying aside our desires is a form of suffering that calls for patience and wisdom as we learn to endure our own frailty and to trust God for what is best…
For the child of God there are no “disappointments” in life, since God directs our steps and uses every circumstance for our ultimate good: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down…” (Psalm 37:3-4). To plead with God for some deliverance, to beseech him for the life of a beloved child or spouse; to cry out from the depths for mercy in the face of loss, as when beside a fresh grave – and to there affirm the threefold affirmation of kaddish: “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21) – is to learn the lesson of obedience – surrendering to God’s will, refusing to despair even in the midst of our sorrows….
Hebrew Lesson:
Therefore we suffer to learn obedience, for what is obedience that is not tested and refined by suffering? “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” is the mantra of the Jewish heart (Deut. 6:4). The Shema is an invitation to “show up” by refusing despair; it is an affirmation that God’s loving providence is in control of all that is essential for our lives.
The flesh needs no lesson to cling to its life and desire its pleasures, of course… God allows suffering in our lives as an opportunity to grow — to affirm what is good in the midst of loss and to trust in God’s direction and purposes. We do not learn obedience apart from the test of faith, and therefore obedience cannot be taught apart from the struggle to believe. We wrestle to surrender, with groans and sighs we utter: “not my will, but thy will be done.”
Recall the Serenity Prayer: ”God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Serenity, or inner peace, comes when we surrender our will and our lives to God’s care, and wisdom comes when we realize that such surrender of the heart makes all the difference. As Kierkegaard once said: “This is the key to finding rest in your suffering. There is only one way in which rest is to be found: to let God rule in everything. Whatever else you might come to learn only pertains to how God has willed to rule. But as soon as unrest begins, the cause for it is due to your unwillingness to obey, your unwillingness to surrender yourself to God.”
In the midst of his lament, from within the whirlwind of dark passions, indignation, confusion, and struggle, God spoke to Job, and there Job learned the lesson of surrender before the overmastering beauty and glory of the LORD. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Through his suffering Job learned the lesson of obedience – he had to forsake his “own dark counsel” and “words without knowledge” (Job 38:2-3) by turning to the Lord in his brokenness and need. Job repudiated his reckless accusation that God was unjust and unloving. In Hebrew the phrase “therefore I abhor myself” might better be understood as “I recant what I said in my ignorance.” Job found comfort (nacham) in turning back to God in trust, notwithstanding his ordeal. Whatever happened to Job was the miracle of grace, wherein he was able to forsake his own understanding – his own “demand” to understand – in trust that God is really his friend, and this consolation was more than enough….
It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing (John 6:33). It is impossible for the human heart to believe that God is gracious to him, and yet the very greatest danger is despairing of grace… Faith and grace are therefore intimately connected, for God’s acceptance and forgiveness is for those who believe… We do not find God’s heart by relating to him through the law – that is, by appealing to him as our Judge – but by relating to him through grace – that is, by believing and receiving him as our Savior. Despair comes from our own spirit trying to reason or bargain with God’s acceptance; but salvation comes from hope imparted by the Holy Spirit, which is to say, by means of the miracle of God.
We are not without God’s help in our suffering, friend. Yeshua promised that the Ruach HaKodesh (רוּחַ הַקּדֶשׁ) would be “called alongside” (παράκλητος) to comfort us on the journey. The English verb “comfort” literally means “to give strength” (from com- [“with”] and fortis [“strong”]), an idea similarly expressed by the verb “encourage,” that is, to “put heart [i.e., ‘core’] within the soul.” In Hebrew, the word courage is expressed by the phrase ometz lev (אמֶץ לֵב), meaning “strong of heart,” denoting an inner quality of the will rather than of the intellect. Ometz lev means having an inner resolve, a passion, and a direction.
The walk of faith requires courage, that is heart… The human mind reasons and therefore fears, but the heart is the center of our being, the core of who we are. The heart does not reason its way to love but instead allows love to inform and direct reason. Therefore God asks our hearts to trust in him, and he does not allow calculated human reason with its fears to move us on the way (Isa. 55:8). When we receive grace to faithfully suffer, we hear the Spirit whispering back to us: “Be not afraid…” “Live in me…” “Walk in the light…” “I am with you always…” “You are loved…”
Hebrew Lesson:
