Many thanks to those who have been praying for our daughter Angela Stump and her health, and peace and encouragement for her and her family. (See my original post about Angie, and the update.) Her surgery has been scheduled for Thursday June 14, at 9 a.m.
Because of my daughter Angie’s pending surgery and diagnosis, and because the subjects of trust and trials are all pertinent in my heart right now, I wanted to share some thoughts about how the Lord uses pain and suffering in our lives.
Benjamin B. Warfield, world-renowned theologian, taught at Princeton Seminary for thirty-four years until his death in 1921. Students still read his books today. But most of them don’t know that in 1876, at age twenty-five, he married Annie Kinkead. They traveled to Germany for their honeymoon. In an intense thunderstorm, lightning struck Annie and permanently paralyzed her.
God tells us that suffering isn’t pointless. We are to rejoice in our sufferings because of the outcomes they will produce: perseverance, character, hope, and the certain expectation that God will make all things right and work all things for our good and his glory.
Some years ago Steve Saint and I became friends. He came to our church within a week of the 50th anniversary of the death of those missionaries, and I interviewed him and Mincaye, the former warrior who was one of the murderers of the missionaries, but who later came to faith in Christ.
When I was seventeen years old and had known Christ for less than two years, I experienced what I believe was a miracle. Driving at fifty miles an hour, I was about to crash. All I could see in front of me, top to bottom and side to side, was the yellow of a school bus, which pulled in front of me from a side road, but which I didn’t see until a split second before impact.
I can mourn with and pray for the families in Connecticut who lost their children (and in a few cases their spouses) in the school shooting. I certainly cannot offer any definitive explanation. I am dedicating this week’s three blogs to perspectives that may be helpful to some.
Nanci said to me, “Given what Scripture tells us about the evil of the human heart, you’d think that there would be thousands of Jack the Rippers in every city.” Her statement stopped me in my tracks. Might God be limiting sin all around us, all the time? Second Thessalonians 2:7 declares that God is in fact restraining lawlessness in this world. For this we should thank him daily.
In a post last June, I shared a video about Steve Saint, son of one of the five missionaries who were murdered in Ecuador in 1956. Steve, who is founder of ITEC (Indigenous People's Technology and Education Center) was seriously injured while testing a design for ITEC.
Biblical thinking says, “I come to grips with the negatives in life, and not by denying them.” I don’t deny I have cancer if I have cancer. I don’t deny I have struggles in my marriage relationship if I do. I don’t deny that I’m really struggling in my walk with God. Positive thinking is not what I can grab onto that gets me through these difficult things.
I'm the author of over 40 books and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries. I love Jesus, my wife Nanci, and our daughters, sons and five grandsons!
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