God, the perfect Father

I have learned over these many years how our Heavenly Father sometimes treats His children.  It may surprise you.

Our Heavenly Father is the only perfect Father there is.

He knows each of us more intimately than any earthly parent ever could.  He is equal parts mercy and discipline, and both are done in the purest love imaginable.  

Everything He does, He does in love. Everything.

Now that we have established that, let's talk!

I recently looked back at some of my blog entries and I noticed a pattern.  I write a lot about suffering.  Lots of referrals to Job.  Lots of lessons being learned, spiritual growth, and such.  

But lately, I've started to wonder if all of my life is supposed to tip heavier on the suffering side of the scale.  And if there is no seeming let-up, what’s a girl to do?

We’ve heard all of the grape analogies. The crushing, the pruning, the tilling, the waiting for ripening, etc., etc.

But when you are the grape (!), you may start to think, ok, when do we get to the wine?  

But God is not crushing us for our own sake.  We become “wine”  in order to pour over onto others.  The crushing of the grape is not for the benefit of the grape, but for the taster on the other end!

We are “wine" to others when Jesus pours through our crushedness, our pruning, etc.  We are able to offer the good stuff like Jesus served at the wedding in the famous water-into-wine miracle. We become the miracle. But the good stuff didn't come to the wedding guests until they ran out of the lesser wine.

Jesus saves the best for last.

He is God, so He does all things well.  

As our loving and perfect Heavenly Father, He knows exactly the right amount of pressure to exert on us in order to get at the good stuff.  Of course, the good stuff is not in us - nowhere to be found.  The good stuff is His Presence inside us pouring out through us.

Will we "go there" with Him?  Will we allow Jesus to crush us?  When the process is neverending, and it seems that our suffering benefits others but leaves us hurting and confused, how do we make sense of it?

The answer to that question depends on how selfish we are.

If we are here for "good times" and for pleasing ourselves, more than for pleasing God and living for others, then no, it does not make sense.

All I know is that the more parameters of my life that drive me to my knees in utter dependence on Him, the more He seems to use me as a blessing to others through words, my songs, service, and just His Presence in me.

When I see an interview with a Christian who has been crushed, really been through the mill, I see more Jesus in them than I see them.  I am more drawn to that sort of person than the more seemingly “together” one.  Why?  Because their “self” can actually get in the way of Jesus shining through them.

All this to say that our Father knows best just how much crushing we each need to become the good wine.  He knows that if the pruning stops that we will stop growing, become stunted and eventually useless for producing fruit. 

So if the suffering does not end this side of heaven, as long as it is making us more like Jesus, then so be it.  But only as long as it is working!  

The devil wants to use the suffering in our lives for his purposes, too, unfortunately.  His agenda?  Total annihilation.  He wants to sever our connection to Christ, the Vine, in order to render us useless for God's Kingdom. He tempts us to see our suffering not as a tool in God’s hands for our good, but merely as suffering.

He does this through his spiritual attacks of persecution from others, negative thoughts, confusion, doubt, and trying to get us to focus more on our own suffering than pursuing God.

But our Heavently Father's power is absolute.  So no matter what the devil throws at us, our Dad is there to protect us from all harm and keep us close to His heart.

Remember - this is a biggie - once you belong to Christ, anything the devil tries to do to you must be run by God first.  The enemy can no longer run rampant in our lives unless we let him.  Letting him in through sin and strife, that is our doing.

So there is suffering that the devil tries to cause in our lives, and then there is the heavenly suffering, that which we endure for God and for the benefit of others. Learn to know which is which!

But God uses even the enemy's schemes to grow us up in Christ, if we let Him.  God uses everything for our good and His glory! God let the devil destroy all but Job's life in order to prove Job's faithfulness and draw him closer to God.  God allowed the devil to sift Peter like wheat for His purposes, to increase Peter’s faith.

"But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32

There it is in the bold part: Peter became wine for his brothers; a poured out offering of grace and preaching done in God's power, not Peter's.  Jesus, as always, knew exactly what He was doing when He gave the devil permission to sift Peter.  It may have hurt Peter, but others benefited eventually.

So will you let God be God in your life?  Will you trust Him as your Perfect Father who always knows best, even when you suffer?

I encourage you to be all in with God no matter what, and He will use you in the lives of others as good wine.  

Oh Lord.  Some days I wonder if the suffering will ever end.  Is there any good coming from this?  All I know is that You are my loving Father and that You do whatever it takes so that I might become good wine in the lives of others.  So I trust that whatever is going on in and around me that You have either allowed or ordained it for my good, Your glory, and the benefit of others.  In Jesus’ Name. Amen.