Christian friend, are we not just like that? We are only children in the faith. We are so limited in our under standing and in our reasoning, but we have a Heavenly Father who knows what is best for us, and so ofttimes we come to Him and we plead and pray and petition for something that we know we just can’t do without, something we cannot live without; it is the most precious thing in all our lives, and yet He says firmly and tenderly, “No, my child, I must refuse the petition. I cannot let you have this that you feel you need more than everything else in your life.” And while we cannot understand it now, I assure you that when, bye and bye, we meet Him face to face and reach the maturity of the children of God, we shall understand. “Not now but in the coming years, It may be in the better land, We’ll read the meaning of our tears, And then, thank God, we’ll understand.” TEACH US TO PRAY Just a word about another benefit of the ministry of suffering. I am- sure that thousands of you will respond to this statement when I tell you that we never learn to pray, really pray, until we are in a place where there is nothing else left to do but pray. As long as we can help ourselves and make our own way, how often we neglect the ministry of prayer, but when there is nothing else left to do, how effectively we can pray. The greatest prayers I have ever known were the greatest sufferers, and the greatest strength in our ministry that we have ever experienced is the ministry of the thousands who can do little more than pray and write in and say, “We are praying for you.” REWARDS FOR SUFFERING While there are many other results of the ministry of suffering that we would love to call your attention to, time permits to give just one more, and that is that there is a special reward for suffering. As you know there are many rewards for Christian service, for soul winning, for looking for the coming of the Lord, and others, but the Lord has set aside a special crown, a special reward, for those that will suffer patiently for Him. Paul tells us in 2nd Timothy 2:12, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” There is a special place of service and reigning and power and authority in the Kingdom to come for those who have been His patient sufferers here below. Peter tells us: “ Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Chrisfs sufferings: that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” I Peter 4:12-13. In Hebrews chapter 2, verse 10, we are told that Christ was made perfect through suffering. Someone has aptly said that, “Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock plus crushing. Linen is flax plus the comb that separates and the flail that pounds and the shuttle that weaves.” And our Christian life, if we are to be what God wants us to be, is faith plus suffering. It is God’s way of doing things. It is God’s own way of making us what we ought to be. God’s way is through the fire, and through the fire He will perfect us. “He sat by the fire of seven-fold heat, As he watched by the precious ore, And closer he bent with a searching gaze As he heated it more and more.”
“And he (that is, the Lord) said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. “ Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in re proaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in dis tresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” II Cor. 12:7-10. Very little need be added to these words of Paul. He is given the definite assurance from the Lord that this “ thorn in the flesh,” whatever it may have been, whether it was sickness, or weakness, or some other inability, some painful disease that limited him, and held him down, it was in order that he might not become proud and puffed up, but remain humble, for the moment a man loses his humility and becomes proud, God cannot use him any more. I wonder if we cannot apply this to our own hearts and to our own lives. Maybe the reason why the Lord does not allow us the relief that we pray for so definitely is because He knows that it would only be detrimental to us. It is well for us as believers to remember that God always answers prayer, but He does not always answer with a “ yes.” Sometimes in His in finite wisdom, His answer is “no” instead, because He knows what is best for us. I want to press this point home to those of you who are suffering and have been asking why God does not answer your prayers, in regard to your healing and your restoration. God does answer your prayers. He probably has not answered them in the way that you wanted; you have not prayed in His will; you have not made your prayer the prayer of the Saviour, “ Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from Me.” Our prayers must be in the will of God, for the simple reason that God knows better what is good for us than we will ever know ourselves. Let me illustrate. Early in my Christian minis try I was called to apprehend a man who had gone insane. After we had captured him out in the field we found on him a loaded revolver and I returned it to the wife of the man who had gone temporarily insane, but she said, “ I don’t want the gun. You’d better keep it, doctor. I don’t want to see it any more.” And so I took the gun together with some of the shells and brought it to my home and placed it in one of the drawers of my desk and promptly forgot about it. Very thoughtless of me, of course, but I just forgot about it. Then as my boys grew up, I remember my son, Richard, just a lad of about five years, in rum maging through my study one day, came upon this re volver and the shells lying near it. I remember vividly how he came running to me with the revolver in one hand and with the shells in the other hand and looking up at me said, “Daddy, look what I found. May I have this? May I have this?” Now, of course, you who are parents know what I did. He prayed of me that he might have the gun, but quick as a flash I reached out my hand I took it away from him, looking first of all to see whether any shells had been placed in the magazine, and then took the shells away from him, and said, “No, No, Richard, you cannot have that gun under any circumstances. It’s too dangerous for you.” Did my son understand? He did not. He began to cry and plead and beg. There wasn’t a thing in all the world that day he wanted more than that beautiful shiny pistol. Nothing else counted. That was the one thing that he felt he could not do without. He must have it. But because I was a loving father, and even though he did not understand, I refused his peti tion. But I know now too that, now that he has grown up, he knows that the best thing for him, even though it caused him pain at the time, was my firm refusal and my answer, “no.”
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M AY, 1964
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