June 15, 2010

  • our Father's discipline, William Cowper on trials & sufferings (letter 61 on assurance & joy)

    I was browsing through that portion of The Olney Hymns written by William Cowper (see here for the sixty-eight hymns written by Cowper); Cowper collaborated with John Newton in writing those hymns. Cowper suffered terribly with depression; both his life story and his hymns have become dear friends to me. You can find out a little more about Cowper's life here and about his relationship with Newton here. I would strongly encourage you to read/listen to those...

    Yesterday I challenged you with some accounts from Whitefield's Journals and asked you to consider your attitudes toward trials and suffering. As I read through some of Cowper's hymns today, I had to notice how wonderfully a couple of them supplemented what I'd written yesterday. I've included two of his hymns at the end of this post.

    For the Christian, there is always the assurance that every single trial, every ounce of suffering, every cup we must drink from is all ordained for us by our loving Father. It is all for our good. All. Romans 8:28 doesn't say God is working some things for our good. Read the verse. Then substitute in your current trial or suffering in place of all things. Is God a liar? Was Paul making that up? No, he was not. All our trials, all our sufferings, etc. All of it is part of God's sanctifying process for His children.

    In Hebrews 12 we read of our Father's loving discipline as a privilege for the children of God. Yes, it may not initially be pleasant, and is often painful, especially at the start, but we can trust the work of each trial and each tear and each heartache is always intended to be profitable for our souls, part of God's work in humbling us and conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ and helping us to know Him more and more.

    The book of Hebrews is a book of encouragement for doubting and weary believers. If you are discouraged today, read it! Don't shut yourself alone in your room and murmur, murmur, murmur! Where will that get you? You will spiral down and down and down. I am saying this because I have been there. Go to the true Bread and living Water. Ok, I know you may not be able to run there, but then get on your hands and knees and crawl there. Fight the prowling lion lest he devour you!

    The devil is your adversary and Christ's adversary. He doesn't want you to meet with the living God. You're hungry, aren't you?  You're thirsty, aren't you? Where else should you be going? Who else has the Words of Life? Whosoever will may come!

    You can distract yourself and numb the pain in many other places and with many other activities, you can seek help in other places, but nothing, absolutely nothing, will feed and fill your soul like meeting with the Lord in His Word and in prayer. Why go to the broken cisterns and the stagnant water when you have access to the river of Life? Children of God, the Word is available to you! The Spirit of God is given to you so you might be filled and refreshed! Take up and read, downcast souls! Read of Christ's work for you there! Find the comfort your soul is crying out for in your darkest and deepest pit! You will find Christ there. He is your comfort. Psalm 94:19: in the multitude of your afflictions, His comforts WILL delight your soul (see my posts here and here). How can His comforts delight your soul unless you rehearse and reread and meditate on them? Brothers and sisters, we need to fight for joy! Fight! Who else is going to do this for you? (That said, I hope you are sharing some of these depths with your brothers and sisters in the Church, so they can encourage you in this, but you must go yourself and soak in the Word of God. Psalm 1.)

    Satan wants to keep us in depths of darkness. We need to be active in this. Yes, we will still have the trials and the pain. For however long, who can say. Yet we can trust God is sovereign over that (more below). We may still have a quite lengthy stay in that pit, but we can begin to rejoice in the Lord even there as we remember God's love for us in Jesus Christ. Even there! We can rejoice in the Lord always! We can sing the songs of our salvation in those strange lands of affliction, suffering, trial and pain. But in order to do so, we have to begin to open the Book and read those songs. No, we may not feel like singing those songs yet, but there will come a time when our Lord will help us to sing again. He will rejoice our souls, but we must also apply ourselves to do what we can, to take that mustard seed of faith and come to Him, to avail ourselves of the means of grace He provides us. God has graciously begun to teach me a little about joy and I want you to experience that same joy. Jesus' desire is that our joy be full. Satan's desire is not.

    Hebrews 12 reminds us:

    “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.
    6  For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”

    Do you see that?

    For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.

    If you are a child of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, Your heavenly Father loves you. In fact, He loved you first. You had no love for Him whatsoever until He set His love on you. Your mind was hostile to Him (Romans 8:7). You were His enemy (Ephesians 2:17). No one is born loving God. No one. We are all born with the sin nature of Adam. We are all bent on our own will and on getting our own way.

    Moving on . . .

    So how does God's love for His children manifest itself?

    If you are a child of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you will be disciplined.
    If you are a child of God by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, you will be chastised.

    There is no way around that. No way.

    Does He love you?

    Then expect His discipline.

    Does He receive you as a son?

    Then expect His chastisement.

    If you say God loves you, if you say you are His child, if you have received His salvation in Jesus Christ, then you must also receive your Father's discipline and chastening. You must expect it. It would be outside His character as a loving Father not to discipline and chasten you.

    And quite often God's means of disciplining and chastening us is through trials and suffering.

    I Peter 1:6  In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7  so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

    Question: Do you see any prosperity gospel there? No! No! No!

    We see God's people are being grieved by various trials...grief is often our first and natural response to trials.

    Yet, look at the comfort there . . .

    First, the trials are only now for a little while, if necessary: meaning God is sovereign over every trial. These trials don't come by accident or by random. Now for a little while, if necessary. There's a limit and there's intentionality there. There's purposefulness there. Our Lord is Lord over all. Including over every single trial. Every single suffering. Every thing. And we know that the bruised reed He will not break and the smoking flax He will not quench. He will be sufficient for us in all our trials. And they will last only as long as He deems.

    The second comfort we can hold onto in our trials is this: the trials will not be wasted but are a means for our faith to be tested and be refined and bring praise, glory and honor to God. If you are truly God's child, you always have to say Amen to every opportunity to bring praise, glory and honor to God...yes, including those heart-wrenching and backbreaking trials. God's purpose is all about bringing praise, glory and honor to Himself. That's what His plan of salvation in Christ is about. It's not really about us first and foremost, is it? So often we forget that, don't we? Hmm...so who is it that's sitting on the throne in the book of Revelation: us or Jesus???

    And again, we see Romans 8:28 in action: all those trials, all that testing, refining, etc....it's all working together for our good to refine our faith, to conform us into the image of Christ. Yes, don't forget to read Romans 8:29 along with v. 28. When we do that we see that our good is far more glorious than having a new car or a flush bank account.

    A little note here: I make war against the prosperity gospel. It sickens me. I will fight you tooth and nail on that. Every time. Some people have gone away (John 6) because of that. The teaching is too hard. They want a Jesus in their own image. (We all do, don't we?) They want a Jesus who fills them with loaves and fishes and keeps away sickness and pain and gives them cars and boats and perfect families and no heartaches or heartbreaks. They don't want a Jesus that demands we hate our lives in this world. Sorry, I don't find that kind of Jesus anywhere in the Bible. We are called to enter into Christ's sufferings – so we might be glorified with Him (Rom. 8) and so we might know Him (Phil. 3). I don't fully understand why God has ordained it that we must enter into Christ's sufferings to know Him or to be glorified, but I know that as I have entered into His sufferings (I will add here, in a relatively small way), I have definitely seen how I have come to know Him in greater measure than if those sufferings, that discipline, and that chastisement hadn't ever happened. No, it wasn't all pleasant, but it has turned out for my good, for His glory and for the furtherance of the Gospel. And I am looking forward to being glorified with Him one day! I know those trials, heartaches and so on will never be wasted. Never.

    I'm not going to go into this much here, but we do have a God Who will help us to rejoice in and through those sufferings (please see the links related to assurance and fighting for joy which I've listed at the end of this post).

    God's intent is to purify us and present us to Himself as holy and blameless. His loving and wise discipline is part of that ongoing, lifelong process of sanctification.

    Can any of us say we are perfect or without sin? Then we cannot say we will ever be exempt from the loving discipline of our heavenly Father.

    Moving on in Hebrews 12 . . .

    7  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11  For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

    How often do we all want that peaceable fruit of righteousness without having to endure the necessary discipline?

    Discipline is a mark that we are true sons of God.

    The mark of a true father is that he loves his child enough to discipline him.

    Same thing with our heavenly Father. He loves us enough not to allow us to remain in our sin. He loves us enough not to allow us to have any gods before Him. He loves us enough to continue to refine and purify us. His desire is for us is to shine as lights in the world so we might bring Him praise, glory and honor not only at Christ's coming, but beginning in the here and now.

    7  It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

    God is treating us as sons! Isn't that wonderful?

    What kind of Father would our God be if He didn't love us enough to discipline us?
    What kind of God would our Father be if He didn't seek to have His children bring praise, glory and honor to His Name?

    And notice how in contrast to the imperfect discipline of our earthly fathers, God's discipline is perfect. (How can it not be, He is perfect, after all!) His discipline is not about any power play or His trying to bully us. His discipline doesn't come out of anger, but out of love. It is all for our good, because when we walk in His ways for us that is for our good and for our greatest joy.

    Yes, yes, we all know that discipline does not seem pleasant at first, yet as we have seen and experienced our Father's past dealings with us, as we read of His dealings with His people in the Bible and throughout Church history, we can trust by faith that our Father's discipline is working for our good, and even in the midst of that discipline we can see that His loving hand is all behind it, and we can begin to have joy as we submit ourselves to His sovereign ways for us.

    Just a note here: this discipline is not punishment for our sin. For all who are children of God by faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ for our sins, all of our sins were punished once for all on the cross in the body of Jesus Christ, and we are continuing to be saved from God's wrath by Christ's life. If you are a Christian and you are undergoing trials, God is not punishing you for your sin. He may in fact be bringing that discipline to bring to light some hidden or prevailing sin in your life, but that's another matter. There is a teaching in the Church that purports that if you are suffering or sick or going through trials, of some sort (or even if a family member is), there must be some hidden sin in your life and those trials, etc. are punishment for your sin and as you confess your sin, the sickness or trial will leave you. That is false teaching. Remember the man who was born blind. What was Jesus response? That sickness was for the glory of God. Yes, again, our Father is always working to conform us to Christ's image and He may use trials and so forth to bring our sin to light, but there are other cases where He allows trials to purify us and test us even when we are currently walking in His will for us. Consider Job, the blameless and upright man.

    I wrote much more on this than I intended. I believe these things are vital to us as Christians. I know I've written many of them previously in other places, but they bear repeating. We need to be reminding one another of these things.

    I've included below those couple hymns from Cowper. I hope and pray the Lord might use them to reaffirm His love for you in Jesus Christ, especially if you are downcast and in the midst some current trial, suffering or affliction.

    Seeking your joy might be full in Jesus Christ this day...even in the midst of your trials and sufferings,
    Karen

    XXXV. WELCOME CROSS.

    ‘TIS my happiness below
    Not to live without the cross,
    But the Saviour’s power to know,
    Sanctifying every loss:

    Trials must and will befall;
    But with humble faith to see
    Love inscribed upon them all,
    This is happiness to me.

    God in Israel sows the seeds
    Of affliction, pain, and toil;
    These spring up and choke the weeds
    Which would else o’erspread the soil:

    Trials make the promise sweet,
    Trials give new life to prayer;
    Trials bring me to his feet,
    Lay me low, and keep me there.

    Did I meet no trials here,
    No chastisement by the way:
    Might I not, with reason, fear
    I should prove a castaway?

    Bastards may escape the rod,
    Sunk in earthly, vain delight;
    But the true born child of God
    Must not, would not, if he might.

    XXXVI. AFFLICTIONS SANCTIFIED BY THE WORD.

    O HOW I love thy holy word,
    Thy gracious covenant, O Lord!
    It guides me in the peaceful way;
    I think upon it all the day.

    What are the mines of shining wealth,
    The strength of youth, the bloom of health!
    What are all joys compared with those
    Thine everlasting word bestows!

    Long unafflicted, undismay’d,
    In pleasure’s path secure I stray’d;
    Thou madest me feel thy chastening rod,
    And straight I turn’d unto my God.

    What though it pierced my fainting heart,
    I bless thine hand that caused the smart;
    It taught my tears awhile to flow,
    But saved me from eternal woe.

    Oh! hadst thou left me unchastised,
    Thy precept I had still despised;
    And still the snare in secret laid,
    Had my unwary feet betray’d.
    I love thee, therefore, O my God,
    And breathe towards thy dear abode;
    Where, in thy presence fully blest,
    Thy chosen saints for ever rest.

    Photo credit: "Serengeti Lion 2" taken by Schuyler Shepherd. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.5 License.

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naphtali_deer

About me...

Christian hedonist in training. Pressing on to know more and more of the joy of the LORD. Pleading with God to rend the heavens and revive and refresh my own soul, as well as His Church, to His praise, honor and glory.

Thank God. He can make men and women in middle life sing again with a joy that has been chastened by a memory of their past failures. ~ Alan Redpath

My other websites

tent of meeting: Prayer for reformation & revival

(See also Zechariah821. Zechariah821 is a mirror site of tent of meeting, found on WordPress)

deerlifetrumpet: Encouragement for those seeking reformation & revival in the Church

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