This coming Sunday, Pastor Rob will begin a six-part series drawn from the content of his new book, When the Bottom Drops Out. During this series, he will share the lessons he and his family learned about God's grace in the midst of profound disappointment. In addition, he will lay out a biblically based "theology of suffering" that will enable us to persevere through the inevitable storms of life. In our devotions this week, we will begin to consider two truths: the inevitability of trials in this life and God's sovereignty over everything that happens to us.
We thank Kim Miller -- a senior editor at Tyndale House Publishers who worked with Pastor Rob on the editing of his book -- for preparing these devotional thoughts. Kim also attends Wheaton Bible Church, and leads a small group of sixth grade girls in Quest56.
Today we read and meditate on John 16:28, and 32-33. The text below is taken from the New Living Translation, but feel free to read from the version of your choice.
- 28"I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father. . . . 32The time is coming -- indeed it's here now -- when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Imagine you are one of the twelve disciples seated in the Upper Room. You have been looking forward to this evening -- the Passover feast -- for weeks. Every year you delight in this celebration of God's deliverance of your enslaved ancestors from Egypt.
This Passover, however, begins differently. Not long after you are all seated, the Lord Jesus stands up, removes His robe, ties a towel around His waist, pours water into a basin, and begins washing the feet of the disciple sitting next to Him. As He moves toward you, everything within you resists. Like Peter, you want to protest that you are not worthy. You keep silent, though, because Jesus tells Peter that unless He washes him, Peter won't belong to Him. And then, a few minutes later when the Lord smiles at you as He bends down and takes your dirty feet in His calloused hands, you sense His love for you in a deep, new way.
The joy you feel is tempered when Jesus, seated again, announces that one of you will betray Him. You steal uneasy glances at those around you. Jesus goes on to explain that He will soon be going away, though He promises to go and prepare a place for you. Someday, He says, He will come back for you and all who are His will be together with Him forever.
You are baffled by much of what Jesus says; so much so that you don't even know what to ask Him. He speaks of sending the Holy Spirit to comfort you and guide you into all truth. Clearly, He knows He is about to face agonizing trials. He says that all of you will scatter, leaving Him to suffer with only His heavenly Father to comfort Him.
And He promises that you, too, will experience trouble in this life. How is it, then, that as your Master finishes speaking and bows His head to pray, you feel a warmth flowing through you that you could only describe as peace?
Of course, we weren't at the Last Supper, so we can only imagine the emotions Jesus' disciples felt. Like them, however, we may have trouble balancing two truths about life's trials: (1) Each of us will face loss and disappointments, some of which will be horrific; and (2) God's plan for us includes pain. He uses our troubles to strengthen us and equip us to offer His comfort to others. These are the realities that Pastor Rob learned to embrace during his ordeal.
Like His disciples, we may not comprehend how God is moving in the heartaches of our lives. However, we can stand strong in the knowledge that He is in control: "You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy" (John 16:22).
Lord Jesus,
Thank you for willingly enduring the shame and pain on the Cross. Your death and resurrection show me how much You love me and remind me that You know what it is like to suffer and feel abandoned. Fill me today with Your peace so that I may see beyond my current troubles.
Amen.