BLAIRGOWRIE

As I was preparing this week's sermon, I read material from the late Jerry Bridges and from a sermon by John Risbridger which I felt I want to share in this pastoral letter. Permission to do so is given in the articles I read.

We have all gone through difficult times and been in despair and then many of us have found solace in God's promise to always be with us and see us through.

Whereas we might see trouble, suffering and difficulty as ‘problems to be worked through’ God sees these things as ‘opportunities for growth in maturity’. Joseph did not learn to trust in God by being kept in a comfortable vacuum but by being exposed to the trials that life brings. While we might like to think that entering the Christian life will bring us an easy life the reality is that we are promised anything of the sort. The late Jerry Bridges (who died this month aged 86) in his book ‘Trusting God’ wrote…

“The good that God works for in our lives is conformity to the likeness of His Son. It is not necessarily comfort or happiness but conformity to Christ in ever-increasing measure in this life and in its fullness in eternity…God in His infinite wisdom knows exactly what adversity we need to grow more and more into the likeness of His Son. He not only knows what we need but when we need it and how best to bring it to pass in our lives.”

God will use anything and everything in our lives to train us, test us and develop us for all that He has for us in the future. The life of Jacob is an excellent illustration for us about how God turns our mess on its head and uses it for our good, how He transforms a prison into a school of learning, how He uses famine to relocate his people and how ultimately all of this brings glory to Himself.

As I look back on the past years, I see much that I did not and still do not understand. I might presume to question what God has been doing but the truth is that I do not have even a fraction of the perspective God has. I can see ways in which we are stronger. I can see lessons that God has taught us. I might even go so far to say that I am beginning to see how all these things might have been preparing us for future ministry. I don’t however know that I am in a position to fully comprehend how God ultimately intended the difficulties we have faced for our good. What I do know is that God is still on this throne and wants me to hope in Him.

The Sovereignty of God is not an easy doctrine to get our heads around, so I want to finish with a quote from Pastor John about the dangers of trying to water it down to make it feel more palatable.

“We might be tempted to walk away from the idea of the Sovereignty of God. We might be tempted to try and diminish God, tempted to try and get Him off the hook for the awkward and nasty things in our lives. Here is a great lesson in life for us. It is precisely at those moments when life seems most uncertain and most fragile that we need to cling hardest to the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God…What do you want really, when life is tough? Do you want a mighty God even though you can’t understand Him or do you want a cut down little God who can’t really help and who is no bigger than your own capacity to imagine? I want the mighty God, the Sovereign God. This is the bedrock for our souls. This is our comfort and the source of our strength…the Sovereignty of God.”

​Blessings, Brian.

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Prayer

Lord help us to see You in all around us and give us the strength we need as we meet challenges in our lives. Amen