June 24, 2024
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Have you ever been to the mall and seen one of those mall walkers? They're going at a steady clip, getting their mile or their three miles for the day. One of those mall walkers actually made the national news a few years back. He was power walking, which means "Don't get in my way! I am coming fast." He must have looked away for a moment, because he walked full-speed into a metal pole in the middle of the mall. Now, why would a collision with a pole be news? The man has not had any sight in his left eye for years. Suddenly, after running into that pole, he sees light in that eye. That collision turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to him! It suddenly helped him see.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How Suffering Improves Your Vision."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Job, whose name is associated with human suffering. He symbolizes suffering probably more than anybody else in all the literature in the world. He really had some painful collisions in his life. He lost his wealth, he lost his health, and he lost his children.
Job 42:5 - his final conclusion on the really hard things he had run into. He says this to God, "My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You." Job says, "I can now see God as I never saw him before because of the pain I've been through." Before he ran into those awful losses he knew a lot about God. Because of running into those ordeals, he says now he really knows God.
Actually, that's been the experience of so many hurting people over the years. They ran into something hard, but the collision was what helped them to be able to see things they had missed before like that man at the mall.
Our son would tell you that his personal idol in junior high and early high school was football. Then came the day his knee got seriously injured. I was in the doctor's office when he was told he would never play football again. That day he cried as I had never seen him cry before. And he'll tell you now he understands that not just as the day his dream died. It was the day that his god died - the god of sports.
Not long after that he surrendered his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Running into that injury and that depressing news was the hardest thing he had ever run into at that point. But because of it, he saw what he'd never seen before - how losable our idols are, how worth it it is to live for Jesus and he became a missionary to Native America.
Maybe you've run into some hard things and it hurts. It's confusing, maybe even depressing. But consider what God might be trying to do in this collision. Could it be He's helping you be able to see? Maybe He wants to use the collision to expose the presence of an idol in your life or to let that other god die on you. Or He may want to open your eyes to your neglect of your family, or your neglect of Him. Or to show you that your schemes are not the answer. Or that the eternal things are the only things that really matter.
You know, for so many people it's when we hit a wall, when you run into something we can't fix or we can't control, or we can't change that we begin to consider "Who can I turn to? I am not enough." And at that moment God uses that to open our eyes to a man named Jesus, whose love was proven by His death for you on the cross. Taking your place, your death penalty for your sin. Whose power was proven by walking out of His grave. And He's ready to walk into your life today.
The purpose of the pain may have been a wakeup call from God to bring you into a relationship with Him so you could be with Him forever. And if you've never said, "Jesus, I'm yours," let this be the day. I'd love to help you with that. Just go to our website ANewStory.com.
For a child of God, the good news is there's never a collision without meaning. Open your eyes and let your Heavenly Father help you see what you might never have seen without the collision.