Dear Missionary Lady,
Greetings in the name of the patient God of grace. His work often requires time, but He keeps working toward His objectives. Meanwhile, He upholds us with His grace and ultimately increases that grace in His great conclusion.
I recently linked a New Testament passage and an Old Testament story that I don’t think I’ve ever connected before, and it seemed like a really good intersection. I was pondering the fact that God’s work may not seem immediately evident in our lives, but He is nonetheless doing it. In the meanwhile, it isn’t always pleasant for us.
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). Yeah, grievous. We get that. Peter agreed. “Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (I Peter 1:6). Paul also understood this. “We are troubled on every side … perplexed … persecuted … cast down” (II Corinthians 4:8-9). That is definitely one side of our suffering, and often it is the side most evident to us because we live in the present. We don’t see the future.
But there is a future. Hebrews talks about the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” that comes “afterward.” One of my favorite verses, the one I was especially pondering, also confirms that the benefit is not always seen until the end. “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (I Peter 5:10). The amazing divine work of those four verbs does come, but it is only in the “after,” when God purposefully steps in and does it.
So I wondered, are there Biblical examples that display this process? My mind considered a few of them – Peter, for one. Jacob is probably another good example. But my mind settled on Job. I don’t think there is a better example of someone who was “real” in the midst of struggles. I love Job. He maintained a dedication to God in the face of unimaginable devastation. He had moments of pure brilliance – absolute gems in some of the statements he made. But he was also a very real man of human frailty. He struggled – deeply. He had difficult questions. Do you know what Job needed? He needed for God to “perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle” him.
Job wanted God to do that work. Job longed for God’s intervention. But it didn’t happen … and it didn’t happen … and it didn’t happen. Until it did. When the time was right, the God of all grace stepped into Job’s world and held a long conversation with him. The result of that conversation (a series of questions through which God revealed Himself) was that Job was finally settled. All his doubts were gone. His questions were silenced. He was ready to walk confidently forward. He was ready to again minister to others. He was ready to be the strong leader of his family and a respected man in his community. He wouldn’t have reached that position without the direct intervention of the God of all grace.
What happened? God did exactly what I Peter 5:10 says. He showed Himself as the God of all grace. He stepped in at the right time, “after that [Job had] suffered a while.” Through His intervention, God perfected, established, strengthened, and settled Job. All that time, Job had been waiting for this result, and it finally happened.
Like Job, we don’t know when that result will happen. We don’t know how long we will have to wait. But we do know that God is doing and will do His work. In addition to the passages above, we have Philippians 1:6. “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” We have II Corinthians 3:18. “But we all … are changed into the same image.” We have II Corinthians 4:17. “Our light affliction … worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” We have Romans 8:28. “All things work together for good to them that love God.”
God is doing all those things. We may not see the result until afterward. We might not see any hint of that result. In fact, it might seem that we are in the absolute blackest darkness possible, even right up until the time that the God of grace steps in. But He will step in, and He will do all that He has said.
What do we do in the meantime? We must cling to the truth we know – that He is working and will work. And we must simply keep going and trust Him to do the right thing. I apologize if this is a repeat, but I’m reminded of an excellent Christian movie called “The Perfect Race,” in which a coach trains a cross country runner. One day she trains her runner during heavy rain on a day that none of the other coaches hold workouts for their runners. One of the other runners asks, somewhat critically, “Why do you run in the rain?” The coach answers by talking about broken marriages. Many of the runners grew up in fractured homes. In just a few years they will be starting their own homes, and the coach challenges them with the idea of not giving up when things get tough. That is why she trains even in the rain – to teach the importance of pushing through the hard times, of not quitting easily when conditions are not ideal. It’s about character. “That’s why we run in the rain.”
So if I don’t see the answers or progress, I have to believe that God will do it, and I have to keep going and keep trusting. I have to tell God, “I will keep running even in the rain. I will keep running until You end the storm. I will wait for You to show the rainbow.”
May God give you the faith to trust and the grace to endure as you run in the rain, waiting for God to intervene. Because He will!
Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
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