God Has a Good Plan for Your Life // When God Speaks, Pt 7

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Whenever you or I feel pain, our immediate response is to do whatever we can to stop the pain. It’s natural response. It’s the way we’re programmed. But just as an athlete improves stamina and performance by pushing their bodies beyond the limit, so God sometimes does that with us.

Let me be perfectly honest with you. I hate pain: Physical pain, emotional pain ... I mean, I just hate it. I’m sure you do too. It’s simply our natural response to pain, because pain is an indication that something’s wrong. If you start getting chest pains, you’d better call an ambulance quick. If you’re out running and all of a sudden, a sharp pain shoots through your hamstring, you’d better stop, quick. We’re programmed to avoid pain because pain says there’s something wrong. Right? But sometimes, pain happens. Hey, there’s a great bumper sticker for your car. Pain happens and sometimes that pain, that trial, that difficult relationship, that knife in your back, that rejection, is part of God’s plan to bless you. "What? Are you crazy?" No, that’s just what my Bible tells me. Have a listen. Psalm 119:69-71:

The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart, I keep Your precepts. Their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in Your Law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

What’s the matter with this guy? It is good for me that I was afflicted? Really? But how many times have you heard people say, "I only really grow as a person when I go through difficult times?" It’s one of those truisms that gets tossed around by people who aren’t at the moment travelling through difficult times, but what about when you’re in the middle of something? Like, as in this case, the insolent smearing you with lies. It’s not funny; it’s so unfair, and what we want to do is whatever we can to stop the pain now! "I’ll smear them with lies; that’ll do it. I’ll show him. I’ll sort him out. I’ll fix him." You know the sort of thing. Don’t get angry; get even. Right? But that’s not God’s way. Jesus said crazy things like turn the other cheek; go the extra mile, and when it came to people trumping up charges against Him, He stood there quietly (not defending Himself) and ended up being crucified as a result.

Sometimes God uses those terrible things to change our hearts; to teach us in the difficult times, so that we might learn His ways in our experience. Think of it as on-the-job training. It’s the best sort. It’s not a theory lesson that happens in a classroom, but a practical that happens out in the real world. Hebrews 5:8:

Although he was a son, Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered.

Hebrews 12:6, 11:

God disciplines those whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

None of us like being told what to do. We all have that, ‘I did it my way’ streak in us. I think the second word that most children learn after mum, mum, mum is no, no, no. Anyone who’s had kids will remember the terrible twos, not to mention those challenging teenage years; that streak of rebellion; that desire to do it my way starts early-on. It’s almost as though we’re programmed that way. King David said it like this, when he was talking to God in repentance for having committed adultery and murder. Psalm 51:5:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Theologians call it the doctrine of original sin, this idea that we’re born with a stain of sin on our very DNA. And so, no matter what stage we’re at in life, there’s this rebellious streak that raises its ugly head from time to time, in all of us. How many times have you looked back on something that you did your way, only to realise the world of pain that it ended up dumping on your head?

So often we do things out of a wrong heart; for the wrong reasons; with the wrong motivations, and there are always, always consequences to that. When we were teenagers, we used to do stupid things because we were teenagers, and we acted out of our immaturity. Well, fair enough, but at some point, we’re meant to grow up. At some point, we’re meant to enter that journey of maturity. That’s the place the Psalmist was at when he wrote these words. Psalm 119:72, 127:

The Law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Therefore, I love Your commandments above gold, above fine gold.

So let me ask you: Are God’s ways the right ways? Is God’s wisdom the right wisdom? Well, obviously, so what do you desire more; God’s way, or your way? The good fruit that God’s ways bring, or the painful consequences that your own ways bring crashing down on your life? That’s why God disciplines us when we go wandering off on our own way. That’s why He lets us suffer the consequences of our sin when we turn our backs on Him; because He loves us.

As a father, when my children were young, one of the things that I was always keen to do was to let them suffer the consequences of their own mistake. "Oh, Dad, I’m running late for school. Can you drive me?" "No." "But I’ll get in trouble!" "Good." They’ve learnt responsibility pretty quickly that way.

The point that the Psalmist is making here is that God’s ways are so good because when we live them, they yield blessing rather than pain. His commandments are so much better than silver or gold; so much better.

As you look back on your life, no doubt, you can see a string of missed opportunities. I certainly can. Times when we have the opportunity to do right; to honour God; to bless other people, and we just fail to grab those opportunities with both hands. Instead, sadly all too often, we’re prone to insolence. That’s a strong word, but when you realise who God is, when you have a right fear of God in your heart, you realise that it’s the right word. Insolence. A flagrant disregard for God’s will and God’s ways; a disrespect so deep of a God who loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us.

I shake my head at some of the bad decisions that I’ve made in the past, and you know something? With all my heart, I don’t want to go there again. That insolence brings shame to our hearts. It brings regret to our hearts. It robs us of joy and peace, of the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. With all my heart, I want to make good decisions – the best decisions; decisions today, the next day, the day after that, that honour God and bring glory to Him. But I know (and I suspect you know this about yourself too) that left to my own devices, I’m more likely than not to botch it up again. Psalm 119:78-80:

Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on Your precepts. Let those who fear You turn to me, that they may know Your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame.

I’ve watched my behaviour carefully over the years. On the days when I’ve spent unhurried, precious time with God in the morning, with the door closed and the book open, it’s been so much easier to honour Him. Whilst on those days when I didn’t make that time, I was far more prone to making bad decisions. How about you? Have you noticed that about yourself too?

We have a choice, you and I: A choice between living a blameless life honouring God, or a life of shame as we live out the consequences of our sin. It’s a simple, clear choice, but to choose the right way, we need wisdom and we need power. Am I right? And that wisdom, that power, come over and over again in bucket-loads, in abundance, from God’s Word.

God doesn’t want you to be insolent and filled with shame. He wants you to know the joy and the peace that come from living the blameless life that He has planned for you.