The Grace-Providing Heart-Seeing God

I. God sees the heart.

" '...For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart'" (1 Sam. 16:7b).

Nice. Though God will see ugly things that don't always surface with the appearance. Still, it's so nice that God knows our hearts and that that He "is greater than our hearts" (1 John 3:20).

II. God is ultimately in control. Refreshment sometimes requires a process that involves struggle and treatment or effort. It's not a guarantee that our thorns will be removed.

Saul was "tormented" by "an evil spirit from the LORD" (1 Sam. 16:14). The affliction seemed to have persistently lingered over Saul's soul. Interesting that it took a process for the evil spirit to leave Saul. Not sure if the evil spirit repeatedly left him, but it's very well possible as vs. 23 seems to indicate that David repeatedly played the lyre for Saul's refreshment in his times of trouble.

Interesting...Yes, God is ultimately in control. The note in my Bible about the "evil spirit" in vs. 14 says, "The Hebrew word may describe something that is troubling, annoying, or harmful." Though these alternatives sound better than "evil spirit" to me, since they are from God, even if the author intended to convey the meaning of "evil spirit", it could be acceptable as God permits evil in this world and ultimately we will never fully grasp how everything works in this universe.

Guess an application that could be drawn is that refreshment sometimes first requires a process. One thing that is different betweeen Saul and believers today though is that Believers have the Spirit. Not sure if the faithful followers back then had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but in whatever way the Spirit was with Saul, it seems that He left Saul (verse 14).

God doesn't always (immediately) remove our thorns in the flesh, but His "grace is sufficent" (2 Cor. 12). And that is more than enough.

No matter what...

In a Between Two Worlds blogpost (entitled Piper on the Prosperity Gospel) is the following videoclip:



The last thing Piper says is: "God most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss...not prosperity." While I'm not sure about the first "most" and the "not" part of his quote, there is definitely something to said for suffering and endurance.

Romans 5:3-5:

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

God beautifies faith through times of adversity and works all for the good for those who love Him and are called by Him (see Romans 8:28, 1 Peter 1:7). And contentment can be found in Him in whatever circumstance (Phil. 4)...

Trusting through the 'bites'...

Because I know my cat and her temperament, her 'bites' (if you can call them that) don't stir in me a feeling of resounding alarm. Someone unfamiliar with cats or my cat in particular might freak out if my cat embraced their hand or arm with her mouth ;). But I know who she is - I know her friendliness, her quirks, her love of being close to me in the mornings [a subtle hint for me to get up and feed her?], her love of being around people. If an unfamiliar cat appeared to be on the verge of taking a chunk out of me, more than likely I would be more self-protective. In an attempt to draw from this an analogy to real life -- when life 'bites', or when God sends trials our way, we can trust Him. We know who He is. When challenges come, we don't have to be defeated by fright.

Trials of Tears

In "When God Doesn't Dry My Tears," after writing about the struggle to let their baby cry when that's "what's best for her", Stephen Altrogge writes:

There are times in life when God allows us to cry as well, because He knows what's best for us. He sees the beginning and the end, and He knows what we need most. So He allows us to suffer for a time that we might be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ. He allows us to shed tears for a season that we might some day reap a harvest of great joy. The Apostle Paul knew something of this when He said in 2 Corinthians 1:9 -

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

"He allows us to shed tears for a season that we might some day reap a harvest of great joy." Beautiful. James 1:2-6a:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,

Count it ALL joy... God, please cause us to look to you in faith for wisdom...and please teach us to count it ALL joy...Thank you.

"A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier"

Simply...wow. A sobering reminder of the atrocities many of us know little about. This book details the account of the thoughts and experiences of a child solider, as well as life before and after his experience as a soldier, in Sierra Leone...

Thoughts:

Ishmael's thoughts seemed to be a haunting fear he tried to escape or avoid. Drugs, brainwashing, revengeful anger, and survival seemed to be a motivation for becoming a child soldier. After the war, the process of rehabilitation for the child soliders included violent outbreaks. They would be told that their bad post-war behavior wasn't their fault. They were treated kindly in the rehabilitation process. I am reminded of my dad, even though his situation was of course different. I thought I heard he had a hard time after coming back from Vietnam. Probably there are a lot of people who after coming back from war are traumatized in ways that their loved ones and associates know little to nothing about. When Ishmael went for an interview somewhere, he was unfamiliar with the operation of an elevator. What aspects of daily life might be hard for refugees to adjust to? What sorts of images, memories, and thoughts might haunt their minds?

To have the faith of Abraham

Something I wrote last month (on 6/21) ~

"So, this time my thought is about something I read last night in Romans 4, when Abraham "did not weaken in faith" when he thought about his old body or "the barrennness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promiseof God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was 'counted to him as righteousness.'"

His circumstances could have easily made him waver in his trust. But, despite them, he GREW, gave GLORY to God, and TRUSTED. Ideally, we too, in spite of unstable-appearing circumstances, will hopefully GROW, give GLORY, and TRUST."

Invisible Children Clips

Heart Struggle Tests

It's interesting to think that perhaps the reason for life/heart trials could be God trying to make us stronger through them, to bring us closer to Him through it. To think He cares enough about us and may be using those trials to glorify Him & develop our character & to bring us contentment though Him...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)

God, please teach me to count my struggles as joy - please make me complete & content in Your will...

Invisible Children

I think it's common for hearts to not be pierced with matters relating to others' pain in another part of the country or world if a face/heart/story isn't attached to the suffering...one way to increase awareness of suffering is for people to become acquainted with the faces and human stories behind the suffering. (That being said, I think it can also be easy to ignore, or lack attentiveness to the inner pain of a friend or loved one. )

If you'd like to catch a glimpse of the situation of the child soliders of Uganda, if you know me and aren't too geographically far, feel free to borrow an Invisible Children or World Vision DVD that touches upon that situation...or feel free to watch the Invisible Children video on the following website:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

You can check out the Invisible Children movement at:

http://www.invisiblechildren.com/