This is a familiar text to many, coming from 2 Corinthians 4:9. I’ve read it too many times to count and it’s always held a certain “passing comfort” for me. Good to be reminded that God protects us from total destruction.
Here is the full text in verses eight and nine:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
For some reason, as I read it in one of my devotions this week, it leaped off the page and right down into my soul. How have I not connected more intimately with this text before now? Especially through this season of loss.
I knew immediately that it would be the topic of an upcoming blog post. (This, by the way, is exactly how God gives me topics week after week.)
And yet, as I sit here, approximately 44 hours before my world was shattered four years ago, I knew I must also write about the four-year anniversary of Dale’s death. The moment my life would be changed forever. The instant I would begin to experience grief unlike anything I’d ever known before. And eventually, an intimate walk with God also unlike anything I’d ever known before.
How to choose which topic wins this Tuesday’s slot? Well, duh, Lynne. Sometimes I think I can almost see God hitting his divine forehead with the palm of his divine hand, wondering how I can be so obtuse! I know that’s not really his character, but it makes me smile.
God INTENDED for this text to impact me in a deeper, more powerful way than ever before because it was exactly what he wanted me to write about as I look back on these past four years.
So, let’s get to it.
For any of you who have lost a spouse, or a child, or someone extraordinarily dear to you, my guess is that you’ve felt “afflicted, perplexed, persecuted and struck down” at some point on your journey. I certainly have. It’s the most painful road I’ve ever traveled.
So I’m just throwing this out there for educational purposes – four years does NOT mean I’ve mostly stopped hurting, or mostly “moved on,” or mostly gotten over it. Far from it. Grief morphs and vacillates. It ebbs and flows. It surprises you with its intensity when you least expect it. But these past four years have not eliminated my heartache. I know widows of 10+ years who would wholeheartedly agree.
I would go so far as to say, contrary to that scripture, that I’ve also felt “crushed, driven to despair, forsaken, and even destroyed.”
But that’s where I’ve gone completely off the spiritual track and entertained feelings that are in complete opposition to the promises of scripture.
Any time I begin to feel the “destruction” end of the spectrum, I must cry out to God and ask him to assure me, once again, that regardless of my feelings, the TRUTH is that God, in his mercy, has ultimately kept me from total destruction.
He’s faithfully shown me his love and compassion and sovereignty and peace and purpose through this pain. It doesn’t matter how many hundreds of times I may feel struck down; God will not let this loss destroy me. It’s a promise I can take to the eternal bank.
What heartaches are you experiencing today? Everyone has them. To some degree, we are all walking wounded. As it says in 1 Peter 4:12, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” It’s pretty much a guarantee, albeit one that I’d rather not cash in.
Praise God that he doesn’t leave us there. No matter what heartache or despair or trial you’re experiencing today, for those who have put their faith in Jesus, the greatest guarantee is that his death on the cross has atoned for all of our sin. And because of that, we have a guaranteed place in eternity with our Savior and our God.
Destruction will finally be destroyed. Until then, keep looking up to God and looking into his Word for the promises that will keep us grounded until our life on this earth is over.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37