Today's blog has a little something in it for the English lovers among us. I recall as a middle schooler learning how to diagram sentences. Now I can't tell you what gets underlined and what gets a box around it or anything like that, but I can remember that I was taught to strike through prepositional phrases. Those are the phrases that come after words like after, among, beside, above, etc. And I can't say for sure that this is what I was actually taught, but what I remember is that we strike through them because they are not critical to the core of the sentence. That idea never really made sense to me. And today I'm thinking of two sentences that change profoundly as you change the prepositional phrase at the end: "God saves us through this trial" or "God saves us from this trial".
You see, when I was young, I always thought God was in heaven to save us from trials. Look at the Israelites in Egypt. God heard their cry for help. He sent Moses. He saved them out of slavery to the Egyptians and out of their cruel labors into a land flowing with milk and honey (whatever that means). And with that perspective, I looked for God to save me from trials. Hard relationships, God will take me out of it. Sickness, clearly healing is the answer. Everything hard or ugly was to be removed because God saves us from trials.
As I've gotten older, my perspective has shifted toward the God saves us through trials lens. Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. God didn't take them out of the fiery furnace, but Jesus got up in that furnace with them until the king ordered them to be taken out. Look at Paul. Three times he pleaded with the Lord to take away the thorn in his flesh (again, whatever that means), but God told him that His grace was sufficient and that He would use that pain and weakness to bring His power and glory on the earth. So with that perspective, I stopped waiting for God to take me out of trials and started looking for how God was shifting me through the trial. Hard relationship, what can I do better? Sickness, how can I learn to be content in this? Everything hard or ugly was sticking around because that's how God was shaping my character.
In the last few days though I've started to think that maybe the answer isn't one perspective or the other. It's more situational. If I'm in a God saves us from situation, a God saves us through mentality will make me hopeless. If I'm in a God saves us through situation, a God saves us from mentality will keep me from seeing what God is trying to teach me. So then in every situation, there is a directive to pray to find which perspective is going to bring life in that moment. Or perhaps the more simple answer is to just focus on God and know that whether He saves from or through, He's going to save and all things will work out for our good because that is His promise. Hmmm I guess that strike through method works after all. God savesthrough trials. God saves from trials. God saves.
You see, when I was young, I always thought God was in heaven to save us from trials. Look at the Israelites in Egypt. God heard their cry for help. He sent Moses. He saved them out of slavery to the Egyptians and out of their cruel labors into a land flowing with milk and honey (whatever that means). And with that perspective, I looked for God to save me from trials. Hard relationships, God will take me out of it. Sickness, clearly healing is the answer. Everything hard or ugly was to be removed because God saves us from trials.
As I've gotten older, my perspective has shifted toward the God saves us through trials lens. Look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. God didn't take them out of the fiery furnace, but Jesus got up in that furnace with them until the king ordered them to be taken out. Look at Paul. Three times he pleaded with the Lord to take away the thorn in his flesh (again, whatever that means), but God told him that His grace was sufficient and that He would use that pain and weakness to bring His power and glory on the earth. So with that perspective, I stopped waiting for God to take me out of trials and started looking for how God was shifting me through the trial. Hard relationship, what can I do better? Sickness, how can I learn to be content in this? Everything hard or ugly was sticking around because that's how God was shaping my character.
In the last few days though I've started to think that maybe the answer isn't one perspective or the other. It's more situational. If I'm in a God saves us from situation, a God saves us through mentality will make me hopeless. If I'm in a God saves us through situation, a God saves us from mentality will keep me from seeing what God is trying to teach me. So then in every situation, there is a directive to pray to find which perspective is going to bring life in that moment. Or perhaps the more simple answer is to just focus on God and know that whether He saves from or through, He's going to save and all things will work out for our good because that is His promise. Hmmm I guess that strike through method works after all. God saves
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