Again God is glorified through our faith because we believe in Him in uncertainty. Faith is like walking into a dark void and landing on a rock. When you walk into the dark void, you do not know there is a rock there, but time and time again you land on the rock. The dark voids are the uncertainties of life; we don’t know what the outcome will be. For example, how to pay the rent during unemployment or if my child is going to survive this illness that looks like certain death, but God constantly shows us that He is for us! And that is the landing on the rock.
So my question is, who darkens the void so that you can’t see the rock? I think most people would say Satan because it seems mean to not reveal that there is a rock there. Without a doubt, it is God that darkens the void because if He shines a flashlight into the void to show that there is a rock there, there would be no room for faith.
In the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50 we see that God had a plan to save many people through a famine using Joseph. Joseph went through excruciating hardship but throughout the story he did not let the sin against him define who he was. We see that God gave Jacob favor for Joseph in Chapter 37 in addition gave Joseph dreams that his brothers were going to bow down to him. So his brothers in jealousy sold him into slavery. In Chapter 39 we see that Joseph gained favor with Potiphar but was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of seducing her. In 39:9, Joseph says how could I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He ends up going to prison for 14 years for doing the right thing. Then again was betrayed by two other prisoners that were Pharaoh’s workers until Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dreams in 41 and is then put second in command in all of Egypt. In 42:21, the brothers of Joseph admit they heard the distress of Joseph’s soul. So we know that Joseph was in pain and sorrow but never lost sight of His God. In Chapter 45, we do not see Joseph taking revenge on his brothers but instead blessing them. In Chapter 46:5, he says don’t be angry with yourselves because God sent me to Egypt even though you sold me into Egypt.
The point I want to make with Joseph’s story is that in the midst of pain and adversity, Joseph always believed that God was leading him, even if it was into pain. Joseph did not know the end of the story; he was always walking into a deep void knowing he would always land on a rock. So his pain caused more hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God and because his pain caused thirst and he found satisfaction in God in that thirst, Joseph was always satisfied in the middle of his pain.
You may say, what if I’m suffering from the sin I’m causing rather than sin committed against me? 2 Samuel 12:10: After Nathan rebuked David for killing Uriah and taking his wife, God said now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite for your wife. Meaning, calamity will be upon you. David still found hope in God. Throughout all the trials and tribulations, his daughter being raped, his son murdering his son, he himself being hunted down to be murdered by his own son; David still cried out to God even though some of his suffering was self-inflicted. The repentance is the same, turning to God because of pain from sin and suffering. We are now post cross and the sin we commit has been laid upon our Savior Jesus. We do not get to feel guilty for our sin because the guilt of sin was laid upon Jesus. As we notice in part of the criterion for clinical depression, excessive guilt is a common symptom of the diagnosis. If anything, because of the cross of our Savior, our sin through the love of God should draw us even closer to Him. It is not about how bad we are it is about how good He is.
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