Growing Pains

Jay,

I have been thinking about the angst you are experiencing and hope that some understanding of the process of God might encourage you.

Now that you are studying the Greek at your school, it will be fruitful to use some of the things you are learning.

There are several words in Greek for the English word ‘know’. Oida is to perceive or know intellectually. As an example, I know you because I have an email from you; I have read some of your blogs, etc.

Another word is ginosko. This is an experiential knowledge; the type of knowledge that is gained by spending time with someone, having an intimate relationship with them, experiencing what they experience, "weeping with them that weep…".

Paul says, in Philippians 3, that I may know (ginosko) Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

God’s desire is for you to know Him. This is not the intellectual knowledge but that of the heart, the experiential knowledge, the ginosko. He wants you to experience Him. There are many Christians around you that have a “head knowledge” of God, but, they have not “experienced” Him. God’s desire is for you to experience Him. So far, this sounds good, but how? How do we experience God and the power that raised Him from the dead and why aren’t we experiencing that now?

Paul continues to tell us how, “through the fellowship of His suffering, conforming to His death”. The only way that God designed for us to know Him, to go those 12 inches from “head knowledge” to “heart knowledge” is through the things that we suffer, through conforming to His death (dying to ourselves).

The pain you are experiencing, the “growing pains” are from suffering, from God allowing you to see and experience the pain of conforming to Him. When you conform to the world, you experience the pain of separation from God, when you conform to Him; you feel the growing pains of repair and restoration.

Although He was a Son; He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Heb 5:8

What if?

Greg asked me why he experienced such pain from his youth. His mother became pregnant, with him, during a brief encounter. Greg never knew a father. He and a sibling were put in foster care after his mother attempted suicide when they found themselves locked out of their mobile home, due to nonpayment of rent.

His youth was marked with neglect and feelings of abandonment.

Why would God allow this?

We all ask this question about our past, adding, "if only I had…". "If only my father loved me". "If only I had not become involved in…". "If only…".

Let's look at this question from God's frame of reference.

I asked Greg, what if, before you were born, God came to you? What if He sat with you and explained that He had a people on earth that were unreachable, a people who experienced rejection, abandonment, and despair? He needed someone to reach out to them, to identify with them and to comfort them. What if God asked your permission, before you were born, to put you in a place where you felt rejected and alone, in order to minister to His people? Would you consent, Greg? Would you be willing to endure this for the sake of the Kingdom to be a living testimony of His love, His power and His Grace to be a part of His story? After all, isn't our testimony a record of what God has done in and with our life?

After pondering this question I saw the mental turmoil on his face. But, he agreed, "of course, if God asked me to endure such a childhood, to later be used to help His people, of course I would agree.

Perhaps God did, Greg.

I asked, "Doesn't this bring a new light to your pain"? "Doesn't this make it all worth it"?

Jesus agreed and came to earth to endure suffering, rejection and death. Luke 9:22

If you would believe this, would it change your perspective on your past, present and future? Would it give your life meaning and purpose? Would it change your complaining to joy? Joy, that God needs a representative on earth, someone to reach His people, someone who has experienced the pain of rejection and grief?

Would this thought transform you from an angry victim to a wounded healer?

What if?

Meditation Continued

Meditation on Scripture is not what we commonly think of as “Bible study.” Bible study is good, and it certainly assists meditation; but Bible study is often learning about God and meditation is about knowing God.

I caution about reading commentaries because when we read other’s opinions about a passage of Scripture, sometimes it can block deeper insights and understanding that the Holy Spirit may wish to reveal or it can hinder a work that He is seeking to do in us. Books can be useful tools and aids, but reading them and learning from them is not the goal of meditation.

Once the passage is in our minds, the next step is to implant the Word in our hearts. While one may agree with Scripture, one often does not believe Scripture. What we truly believe in our heart will be acted out in our lives. The step of going from agreeing with the Word in our minds to believing the Word in our hearts is accomplished through meditation.

Biblical meditation is speaking the memorized words of Scripture over and over to oneself and to God. It is speaking those words in the first person, and speaking those words in prayer to God. Meditation is rolling every word around in our minds, thinking of its meaning, its direction, its application to us, how it addresses our lives. It is emphasizing each word and phrase in a sentence and pointing its message at our lives and our souls.

Borrowed

Meditation

Thy word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against Thee. Psalm 119:11

1. The Law exposes our sin (without the law, there would be no sin)

2. Man’s constant struggle is against sin

3. God also gave the “antidote” to sin

4. Why, then, do we try everything EXCEPT what God has prescribed

5.

borrowed