While God is sovereign over all that happens in your life – including pain and hardship – he takes no pleasure in your grief. Your hardships do not make him glad. Though his ways are mysterious, you can trust that when you’re hurting, God’s heart is with you.
I'm Joni Eareckson Tada with a hopeful word in your hardship.
People often ask me about those early days when I was trying to adjust to life without use of my hands or legs. They’re curious as to how I came to trust God with such a passion. When I’m asked, I always hearken to a time after my accident when a friend, Steve Estes, was helping me sort through questions about God and suffering. We were sitting at my dining room table by our open Bibles. And Steve just jumped right in by reading Lamentations 3, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” Oh my goodness, in the span of a single verse, the Bible asserts that “the Lord brings grief,” yet “he does not willingly bring... grief.” Sounds contradictory, right? Well, not so.
Yes, the buck stops with God when it comes to the grief-filled things that happen in our lives. God has a hand in our hardships. But with that verse in Lamentations, Steve was able to reassure me that although God allowed my accident to happen, he didn't get a kick out of it; he wasn’t smiling when I dove off that raft. It gave him no joy; no pleasure in permitting such an awful thing. He thought it was awful. Now, it meant a lot to hear that. Steve said to me, “Joni, God’s in charge, but that does not mean he actually pushed you off that raft.” Rather, he allowed the currents, the shifting sand, the ebbing tide – he decreed that all of it should play a part in what happened that day. But Lamentations says it grieved him.
And that’s such an important point. It’s huge. That one little verse, Lamentations 3:33, reflects the heart of God like nowhere else in the Bible. You see, the book of Lamentations is divided into five chapters. The first two chapters are each comprised of 22 verses. The last two are also 22 verses. However, the middle of the book is chapter 3, and it comprises 66 verses. Now here’s the intriguing part I learned from reading this book called “Gentle and Lowly” by Dane Ortlund: the exact middle chapter three is verse 33, “For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” That verse falls in the exact middle of this book. It’s right at the apex of the entire book, and there’s a good reason why. When it comes to the suffering God allows in your life, he wants you to know that he’s got the heart of a father. We may not understand his ways, but he definitely wants you to understand that he’s got the heart of a kind and compassionate dad, and it does not make him happy to see you hit with hardship.
Lamentations 3:33: Look it up. Because that little verse changed my life. And although God’s heart no doubt grieved when I took that fateful dive, I know that today his heart is joyful because he can view all the good things that have flowed from my paralysis. Not only has quadriplegia drawn me closer to Christ, but it’s provided a platform from which the Lord has reached thousands of disabled people for the Gospel through Joni and Friends.
So today, consider the pain that has touched your life, and take a minute to read Lamentations 3. And when you come across verse 33, pause and thank the Lord that your hardships do not make God glad. I know it’s hard to understand; it’s strange, and we will never be able to understand God’s ways completely, but there is one thing that is not strange: you can rest in the fact that when you’re hurting, God’s heart is with you.
God bless you today, and thanks for listening to Joni and Friends!
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