Indeed, in this life we will have suffering and adversities. Rankin states, "Does He (God) know how He can be most glorified in your life? Yes, and it's not by putting a hedge of protection around you so that you never have any challenges and struggles." (1) I agree with Rankin. I love teaching people how to be resilient because of adversities that I have gone through. One of my favorite quotes that I use is, "God would not put you in a glass bubble when you become a Christian. If He did He wouldn't be able to test how true our faith is. Even if we were in a glass bubble safe from all troubles and adversities our flesh would still be so selfish to complain about that."
The Apostle Paul is one of the main people that I discuss a lot because of his sufferings. As much as he suffered he still stated in Ephesians 6:10, "Be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength." It is only with Christ and His strength that we can get through adversity. Usually when adversities strike a person they tend to focus on themselves and how they will get through it. They do not turn to Christ and his promises. Rankin wrote, "Our fleshly nature is so self-centered that we tend to focus on our comforts and conveniences and feel sorry for ourselves when our plans are disrupted, and we suffer the loss of material things. We fail to realize that God may have a higher purpose in allowing adversity to come into our lives." (2) One of the sorrows (adversities) that I have seen people suffer the most (or I should say suffer the worse) is when a loved one passes away. This is one of the oddest things to me especially for Christians because we know that people are going to die and it is plainly stated in the Bible. Rankins whole point throughout the book is glorifying God. Even the death of a loved one can help us to glorify God by how we go through the mourning process.
I have had a lot of adversities in my life beginning in my childhood however, none has been as bad as the troubles of war and suffering the injury that I have already spoken of. I will admit that when it first happened I questioned why would God allow this to happen to someone that is His child and to someone that surrendered into the ministry. In the beginning I was acting selfishly not realizing that God could use this for His glory. I was selfish because when it first happened I stuttered after the plain ride from Iraq to Germany and my memory was terrible. Now looking back I see there was many blessings that can be found in that situation. Not only have I been able to overcome many of the cognitive issues, but the biggest blessing that I can find in that situation is that my truck got hit by the I.E.D. The I.E.D that hit my vehicle was a large explosive and I was in a RG-31 a vehicle that can take the hit better than humvee's. In my convoy there was two humvee's which had my platoon leader in one and my platoon sergeant in the other along with their crew; both vehicles had at least four people in them. If one of their vehicles would have got hit everyone could have or more than likely died.It is all about having faith in God, how we deal with adversity, and perspective about the situation. One of my biggest irritations now is the small things. One thing that I can take from Rankins writings is not to allow the termites get to me. I will incorporate this in my prayer life and ministry. I am getting better, but I know that Satan uses those termites to take my focus off of Christ.
References
1. Jerry Rankin, Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory, (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing, 2009), 202.
2. Ibid., 207.
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