Week 5 - Day 1 - Death Is Not Dying

His Strength In Your Weakness

In Paul, God gave us an incredible example of perseverance and joy through suffering. You can't help but be strengthened in the Lord as you read of Paul's adventures and see his attitude through it all!

Dale Jung recommended a video of a young woman named Rachel who was suffering with terminal cancer. At the time, she was told she had 6 to 18 weeks to live. Rachel had battled breast cancer for about 5 years - at one point, they thought she'd beat it, but God had something else in mind. At 37, with a husband and two young girls, she realized there are some things God has taught her that she wants her girls to learn, too. She shares those in the video, Death Is Not Dying (which you can watch, too - just follow the link on the right) and I'd like to share the first two with you here:


First - KNOW GOD...
Not who we think He is or want Him to be, but knowing Him for who He truly is. If we want to have a right view of the world, a right view of our circumstances, a right view of others, a right view of ourselves - then we must first have a right view of God. Without that, everything else is out of focus, too.

Second - KNOW YOURSELF...
She said she did not try to teach her children self-esteem, because it's a lie. It tells you - Believe in yourself - You deserve it - You have the power to do anything. In the church it sounds like this - Accept yourself as you are. God already has! The focus of self-esteem is always on me. The assumption is that I'm a good person and I deserve better - but that's NOT what God's Word says!
Our anger and frustration in our struggles may be normal and even understandable, but at the root, they are unbelief. It's our sinful hearts saying, "This is not the right thing for me, God. You've made a mistake." It's telling God, "You are not good. You are not fair. You are not really in control. You don't really know what's best for me."
The truth is: God IS good. God IS fair. God IS in control - and making Him into a god that serves me is sin.


The video was made on March 4, 2009. Rachel went to be with the Lord on July 2. Her words were powerful and underlined a lot of what we are learning in Job. Job's struggle was normal - understandable. And though his questioning of God shows he was still learning, he did not try to box God up with humanly defined reasoning like his three friends did. Job's God was still big - and Job still served God, not the other way around.

God can handle our questions - it's our lack of trust, our lack of readiness to wait on Him, that saddens Him. Habakkuk learned this, too. In this tiny Old Testament book, Habakkuk questions God - and quickly learns that God always has an answer, but sometimes we must wait for it. In Hab. 2:1 the prophet says, "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts..." Apparently, this was an expression used in those days that defined waiting on God. The watchman would watch throughout the night - for enemy attack or danger, but also for messengers. If the watchman was faithful, the city was safe and important information got through. But if he fell asleep or left his post, the city could fall prey to its enemies or messages could be lost. Dr. McGee says it's the same with us. God makes it clear we are to wait patiently for Him. He has the answers we need when we need them, but we must wait faithfully for Him. He will provide what we need in His own timing. If we impatiently demand answers from God though, we cease to trust Him and we risk the onslaught of the enemy and we may miss the message God gives... and we reduce our great God into a god that serves our purposes instead of serving Him and giving Him the place of honor He deserves.