Tag: faith

suffering.

suffering.

by Kathleen Moulton

There are many views within churches about suffering.

Over the years, I have found it is human nature to gravitate to a particular view found in the scripture and stay there.

Naturally, those who have faced difficult situations and needed a miracle – whether physical healing, a financial breakthrough, or a relationship restored – tend to see what prayer and faith have done for them. This is their message and they, with good intentions, tell others through encouraging, teaching, or preaching.

My church background wasn’t word-of-faith (Kenneth Copeland, et al) but we did see the healing and restoration Jesus displayed and therefore this was presented with confidence.

In my personal suffering of trying to make ends meet financially, loss of a business, loss of relationships, and more, I often sat wondering at those in my church who stood and testified of what God did for them. I suffered more when I wondered why I was left out of these wonderful answers to prayer. But it didn’t stop with me. I wondered about many others, too.

When we stand up in church and say God healed me, or God spared my loved one from death, the next question is: what about me? Doesn’t God care?

These aren’t only church goers who think this. More importantly, these are people we want to reach with the gospel. People who don’t go to church.

Is our message to them that through faith, every sickness will be healed? Every one we love will be protected? Spared from death? We know this isn’t true so why aren’t we addressing this honestly?

A biblical principal that worked for us can make us inadequate in helping people who are suffering. We think it’s a simple solution to stand on the word of God and have that ever important quality of faith.

Yes, the Bible says much about the importance of faith. But it also says much about suffering.

Problem is, those who have had good outcomes with their faith preach it, as if it is all that is needed. It is an injustice to people to not address the other side of things. Whether it is a small church or a big name preacher on television, people are being misled.

I get it. The Jesus movement of the 70’s ushered in a fresh, vibrant faith in a personal God who is not sitting on a throne somewhere watching the world go by. The Bible came alive, no longer rote prayers or passages that didn’t touch our hearts and minds. Worship took a new expression and one could feel the presence of God. Church wasn’t just for Sundays or Easter. Faith became a life style; a real connection with God.

Denominational churches were felt to be lacking and non-denominational churches sprung up in living rooms across the country. Of course, the denominational churches, if they preached Jesus Christ and him crucified, were our brothers and sisters, too, and not to be dismissed. Yet, I wonder, if in our desire for “God doing a new thing” which is always exciting, some threw the baby out with the bath water; forgot the richness of those hymns and the value of liturgy and ceremony.

Fortunately, there are churches that have learned to combine both. That is because the Church is an ongoing masterpiece referred to as the Bride of Christ. Over the centuries, with each church age, we walk in more light as our eyes are opened to wonderous truths from the scripture.

Yet, there are certainly some, and perhaps there will always be, remnants of pushing faith and exluding suffering, as if it is something God never allows. Hearing that Jesus took our infirmities on the cross and by his stripes we are healed is one scripture often quoted in prayer.

This is a truth. Thing is, I think far too many are left without an explanation when they or their loved one was not healed. There is silence. Then they continue on with their sword of the spirit and the shield of faith because God wants us to be victorious.

Have we thought about how God wants us to be victorious in our pain and suffering? When we didn’t have a good outcome?

The fact that we trust him, find comfort in him, and are able to endure is victorious.

If we are not telling both, we are setting people up for disappointment, disallusionment, and more suffering.

Up next: suffering part 2.

the problem with faith.

the problem with faith.

by Kathleen Moulton ♥ 6 Comments

For years, years, I have been troubled with people who prayed and “believed God” for a miracle, got healed, and proclaimed their experience for others to believe, too.

Don’t misunderstand. I was happy for them. I understood their thankfulness and desire to make known what prayer can do.

I was not troubled with them.

I was troubled with the people who believed God, too, and did not get healed.

In my 40 years of being surrounded and involved with understanding faith and prayer, I can count on one hand how many people have been healed.

We have to do something with this. Because there are a whole lot of people who are confused and discouraged. And I think God cares about this.

I believe in prayer simply because the scriptures are clear.

Yet, I think we should be careful about isolating a scripture and building so much upon it that we have created inaccuracy. Because God cares about those people who were not healed and are broken-hearted.

It only poses questions such as, “Doesn’t God love me?”, “Didn’t I have enough faith?”

I don’t believe God wants that for anyone.

I have struck a balance in my life of praying for good but accepting the bad. Too much either way causes problems.

Many contemporary churches emphasize Bible believing Christians doing greater works than Jesus.  

Hmm. If that were the case, where are all the miracles, healing, and deliverance?

If some can proclaim what they see, some should be able to proclaim what they don’t see. This is not a lack of faith. In fact, I think it reflects a very deep kind of faith which is not based on personal experience, but acknowledges that we do not see and understand everything.

Faith isn’t always visible. Faith can weather many disappointments and still rest firmly on God’s promises, and ultimately, the last chapter of the book when everything concludes:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain,

for the old order of things has passed away.

I often think about the people who endured suffering throughout the centuries. Read their biographies. Sing their hymns. They still speak to us today, “the great cloud of witnesses”. What truths did they build their life on that contemporary Christian thinking has all but ignored?

What ever you are facing, let your faith find its place. And while I cannot promise a miracle, I can promise wherever you plant yourself, your roots will go deep and sustain you for the rest of your life…

until God fixes everything in eternity.

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have faith in God.

have faith in God.

by Kathleen Moulton ♥ 1 Comment

Some speak to mountains

and do not doubt

and the people marvel.

Have faith in God.

Some wield a stone

at the impending doom

as the threat falls to the ground.

Have faith in God.

Ravenous lions bow

tumultuous seas rest.

Step out of the boat

and let us see

your faith.

Take a risk.

Stake a claim.

Lights. Camera. Action.

But then the Lord looks down upon

things not seen.

The trusting ones

patient suffering

of trials proving genuine faith

just because you have not seen Him

yet you love Him

still.

Have faith in God.

The unfading beauty of a gentle, quiet spirit

so precious to God.

A cup of water

the extra mile.

A stable

a donkey.

A gentle whisper

a still, small voice.

Have faith in God.

Submition

Photo by CIRILOMAN on Foter.com / CC BY

 

do not despair.

do not despair.

by Kathleen Moulton

The earth comes alive with fresh spring colors, celebrating rebirth.

Hidden eggs and colorful candy, butter yellow chicks and soft rabbits.

Cream colored lilies adorning churches.

Daffodils and tulips sway in the breeze.

Best Sunday dresses and ties to match.

Hymns and prayers, messages of hope.

Not everyone joins in the celebration.

A young mother is facing her fourth surgery today.

A family grieves the suicide of their loved one.

A couple have separated.

All around us, people are facing something.

Through faith men have conquered kingdoms

gained what was promised

and shut the mouths of lions.

Quenched flames 

escaped the edge of the sword

and women received their dead back to life again. 

But some did not.

There is suffering in life.

Repulsive, horrific, tragic, tormenting agony.

We question why? How can a “good” God allow such pain?

He did not remove it but God literally left his holiness and stepped into a world of corruption, depravity, and wickedness, in the human form of a man, to save it.

Perhaps it is because without the human form he would have obliterated earth entirely because of his holiness.

God wanted to show his love in a way we could understand. Jesus took on all of the depravity of mankind on the cross.

3 days later he came back to life, showing us He is God.

Who else would have power over death?

This is the hope of those who are happily celebrating today.

This is the hope of those who are not.

How is it that some get answers to prayers?

How is that some do not?

It’s easy to celebrate when there was a good outcome.

It is not easy to celebrate when there wasn’t.

Let’s remember

those who were all commended for their faith

yet none of them received what had been promised

since God had planned something better

so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Hold onto that hope today.

God didn’t give to one and not to you.

God gives those who are suffering comfort and peace.

God sees.

God knows.

God is with you.

God promises that one day, he will make it right.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

-The Bible

close up environment flora ground
Photo by David Alberto Carmona Coto on Pexels.com

 

it is well.

it is well.

by Kathleen Moulton ♥ 2 Comments

It’s normal to want things to go well.

But like gravity, we are vulnerable to what we cannot control. We can defy it, but inevitably we must surrender to it. Even the very act of resisting it proves the point.

There is no doubt God wants to bless us. We see it throughout the scriptures. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if we become so focused on this that we forget the other parts of the Bible which tells us about God’s comfort, his strength, and the peace he wishes to give us.

If we didn’t have to deal with things going wrong, then why those scriptures?

Why are we surprised by pain?

Because we’re human.

I know I have spent the greater part of my life embracing “calling those things that are not as if they were”. I was committed, determined, and embodied “faith without works is dead” and “the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much”.

I latched onto the definition of prayer warrior. It was a good fit for my personality and at the end of the day, I felt productive and accomplished. I am naturally responsible, dependable, and find great satisfaction in covering all the bases.

Until I discovered my faith would no longer be activity, but standing.

It wasn’t long before I realized no one really likes  you standing around. Not in this busy, goal-driven world we live in. If you aren’t moving and checking things off the list, are you really in a “good place”?

I think there is room for flexibility in the Christian faith. We cannot be rigid where God gives grace.

This does not mean we do whatever we want when it is clear what God says about it.

It means not everyone is going to look the same. Throughout the scriptures, we see Jesus dealing with people in very different ways.

Surely, God must have a greater range and capacity for us than we understand.

When Christopher died unexpectedly, you better believe my Lord and Savior was right by my side. That isn’t to say I didn’t go through horrendous emotions. But if I ever “saw God” like Job did after his suffering, it was then.

Do you know there is a place of suffering that is the greatest dark abyss known to mankind? A place of desperation of drowning and suffocation.  Only God exists in this place.

That is why those who have been there are sensitive to Christian platitudes, howbeit well-meaning. (And by the way, it is not a time to become offended with someone who has no patience for it. We would not speak casually to a burn victim. Please know some wounds cannot be seen).

If you haven’t been there, and I pray you never see it, believe what I am telling you.

When God says He is with us, He is.

And because He is, you can trust Him to do all the scriptures tell us .. now .. and into eternity.

Things may not go well, but it will be well with your soul.

sad

 

seeing God.

seeing God.

by Kathleen Moulton

I’ve always carried the banner of faith in every situation. It fit me well. Most days, I am naturally optimistic and positive. The faith message found in the Bible resonated with me.

There is a place for faith. God says we need it. But I have found applying it to situations that positions a person to believe to the point of denying reality is wrong. We get this thinking from the faith scriptures. We ” call those things which be not as though they were”. The scripture says God does, but we have Christ in us so we do, too.

The Bible talks about trust, too. There are plenty of scriptures that say the inevitable: people get sick. Accidents happen. Things go wrong. People die.

Faith is also acceptance and learning to live with pain.

This is not a fatalist mindset. It is facing a situation with courage. Otherwise, there are endless questions that torment you. And usually, the promoters of the faith message are nowhere to be found. Because someone has to answer why your diligence to prayer did not work.

I’ve learned the hard way. But you don’t have to. Recognize what you know to be true. Because when you face tragedies, no matter how horrific, God says he will never leave you or forsake you. God’s presence is real when you’re walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Like Job said, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”

No one can take that away from you.

Don’t inject more hurt into your heart. They don’t understand. Forgive them. And let God lead you to the green pastures and quiet waters where he will heal your broken heart. It will naturally unfold in the days to come.

Photo credit: -mtnoxx- / Foter / CC BY
Photo credit: -mtnoxx- / Foter / CC BY

And if you are committed to the Lord, you know his grace is enough. You also know that it may be how God wants you to let your light shine to others.

panic attacks.

panic attacks.

by Kathleen Moulton

Since the loss of my son, I began having panic attacks.

If you have them, you know what they are. They’re scary!

After the 3rd visit at the ER, a very kind doctor asked me, “Why won’t you take the medicine your doctor recommended? What are you afraid of?”

I wanted to cry out, “Because I’m a Christian and we don’t take stuff like that!”

But I didn’t. I was silent.

“If you had diabetes, you would be taking insulin, true?”

“Yes.”

The light went on. I’m not weak in my faith. I had misdirected faith. Would I have the faith to trust God to do something I didn’t understand? That I didn’t want to do?

I filled the prescription and it took less than a week to get straightened around.

The scary part of panic attacks was my mind racing. I felt like I was losing control. But the truth was, I wasn’t.

Truth is a wonderful thing. Perhaps difficult to admit to at first, but it really does set you free.

who-knows-what-tomorrow-brings_l

~to be continued~

Photo Credit: Tony Fischer Photography / Foter.com / CC BY

tomorrow.

tomorrow.

by Kathleen Moulton

Some churches deal more with overcoming the pain than feeling it. That leaves people thinking they don’t have enough faith and they ignore the pain.

It’s just as wrong to ignore the pain and call it faith as it is to wallow in pain and never move through it the way God intended.

When my son died, there was no ignoring it. Pushing it away is like trying to cover a fatal, bleeding wound with your hand.

Each day, you face the pain. It is what it is and the best way is to have courage. Courage doesn’t mean you are not afraid, just like feeling pain doesn’t mean you don’t have faith.

Courage is based on truth and so we call it what it is. God has equipped us to walk through the pain, not avoid it.

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When the sun goes down at the end of the day, darkness settles over us and we don’t see clearly. Things sometimes look worse.

But remember, the sun always rises in the morning. And the new day is meant to brings us new hope and a new outlook. Don’t dread tomorrow! God is with you always and will guide you through your pain if you let him.

~~~

Photo: Ibrahim Iujaz / Foter.com / CC BY