Four Certainties
As you have read and considered the truths found in the Scriptures, we trust it has reassured you of the goodness and greatness of God and of His love and care for you—even in these difficult times. God’s goodness and greatness give us hope and encouragement when life hurts. With that in mind, please take a few moments to think through the four certainties of life.
God Gives You Reason To Hope
If you are a sick or suffering follower of Jesus Christ, you can look beyond your present difficulties to a bright future. As God’s child, you are destined to receive a new, glorified body and to live forever in heaven.
The apostle Paul drew comfort from his expectation of resurrection and eternal glory. After reaffirming the fact of Christ’s resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, he pointed out that we too will receive resurrection bodies like the one Christ has (vv.20-58). This truth sustained him in his service for the Lord. In a spirit of joy and optimism, he wrote:
We do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 4:16–5:1).
We may not react to these words with much enthusiasm. We want healing in the here and now. But when we let ourselves think this way, we are looking at life from the vantage point of those who have no real hope of heaven. We need to remind ourselves that we will live forever in a wonderful new world! When we really grasp this truth, we can share the victorious attitude expressed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 4. Indeed, we will “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).
God Hurts When You Hurt
The second biblical certainty from which we can draw great strength is the knowledge that God is suffering with us. He is our loving heavenly Father. He hurts when we hurt. The psalmist said, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14).
The truth that God hurts when we hurt found full expression when it was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14). He, the second person of the eternal Trinity, became a member of our humanity. He suffered everything we can suffer. He was misunderstood and misrepresented. He was falsely accused. He was betrayed by a close companion and forsaken by His closest friends. He was scourged. He was forced to carry a heavy wooden beam on His lacerated back. He was nailed to a cross. And even as He hung on it, He endured the taunts of mockers.
Why did He do all this? Couldn’t He have paid the price for our sins without going through all of this humiliation and abuse? It seems He underwent all this added pain and humiliation for two reasons: to reveal God’s heart (2 Corinthians 4:6), and to become our sympathetic High Priest (Hebrews 4:15-16). God had always hurt when His people hurt. But He did so in a real, tangible manner through the Incarnation—through the event that began in Bethlehem.
God Knows Why You’re Suffering
A minister who learned he had cancer was displeased with God’s ways. He told a friend, “I can’t understand why God let this happen to me. I’ve served Him faithfully. I’m not nurturing a secret sin. I’ve taken care of my body. I keep my weight under control. I don’t think I deserve this.”
His protests remind us of those raised by Job almost 4,000 years ago. He hurled out the word why a total of 16 times. He even listed 12 ways in which he had been a moral, honest, kind, and loving man (Job 31:1-14).
But God never answered Job’s questions. Nor did He answer this query as it came from the lips of my minister friend. However, God did something better. He gave them the assurance that He knew why.
Sometimes we can answer the question why. It is always good to search our hearts to see if we bear some blame for our pain. We may be sick because we have not obeyed commonsense rules of health. It is also possible that our illness is the result of God’s chastening because of sin in our lives (1 Corinthians 11:29-30; Hebrews 12:6). If we know we have been living disobediently, we must repent. God may give us healing when we do.
However, we often can’t find specific answers to our why questions. But God does not leave us completely in the dark. He has shown us that even unexplained suffering has a valuable purpose.
We may not know which reason for suffering fits our situation. But God does.
God Is In Control
God has everything under His control. He may allow the devil to test you by making you sick. He may permit you to suffer great pain through an accident caused by carelessness or through a vicious attack by an evil person. These unpleasant events try us and may even tempt us to sin, but we can rest in the following assurance:
No temptation [test] has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
No matter what your trial, no matter how great your pain or grief, your heavenly Father loves you. He may heal you miraculously. If not, He will be with you and someday take you to heaven. He has your ultimate welfare in view.
If you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ, you can face your trials calmly and hopefully. You can pray with absolute assurance that God will heal you, if doing so will bring glory to Himself and further your eternal welfare. If He doesn’t make you well, He will give you His wonderful grace and use the affliction for good.
If you have never placed your trust in Jesus Christ, do so today. Acknowledge your sinfulness and your inability to save yourself. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for sinners and that He rose again. Then put your trust in Him. Believe that He did it for you. He will forgive you, make you a member of His family, and give you eternal life. He will take care of you through all time and eternity.
Making It Personal
A personal relationship with God begins with an event Jesus called a new birth (John 3:3). When we are born spiritually into God’s family, we become His children and members of His spiritual kingdom.
To begin this personal relationship, take these steps:
Admit your need.
We come into this world physically alive but spiritually dead—missing out on the quality of life for which God made us. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10), and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Therefore, we need a Savior.
Realize what God has done for you.
God loved us enough to send His own Son into this world to rescue us from the devastating effects of our sin (John 1:1-14; 3:16). Jesus died in our place, offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice. With one sacrifice, He paid for the least—and the worst—of our sins.
Personally believe and receive God’s gift.
No one is saved by trying to be good. We are saved by trusting in Christ. The Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The actual words we say to God to receive this gift may vary. What is important is that we believe Him enough to be able to say something similar to the following:
God, I know I have sinned against You. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, that He died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins, and that He rose from the dead to prove it. Now I accept Your offer of full forgiveness and eternal life. I accept Jesus as Your gift for my salvation.
If this is the honest expression of your heart, you have entered into a personal relationship with God!
