The next one in the Covenant Series - God’s Sustenance: May you sustain me when I am well and when I suffer

God’s Sustenance: May you sustain me when I am well and when I suffer

Reading: Isaiah 40:27-40:31

Introduction

As I approach this subject today, I have to admit that, even though the sentence speaks of when we are well and when we suffer, there is no way in which I can deal with each of those circumstances equally. The truth is that it is easy to be happy with God or to acknowledge his sustenance when we are well but when we are struggling, when we suffer, it is not that easy…sometimes it is just plain impossible. So truthfully I am going to err on the side of struggle and suffering…although acknowledging that we need to remember God when we are well, because there are times that we clearly forget about God, because things are well.

All people have hills and valleys that we all go through from time to time. I don’t believe that there is anyone here this morning that can honestly say that his/her life as a Christian has only been “ups.” All of us have walked through the valleys of life. All of us have been hurt. We have all felt the pain of disappointment. And whether or not we have actually vocalised what it is that we really feel inside concerning those experiences, I would imagine that we would all admit that we have been disappointed with God. In one way or another, we have felt as though God has let us down.

For each of us there are many differing circumstances that have helped to foster these feelings of disappointment with God. Whatever it might be…it may be something quite small and seemingly insignificant in other peoples’ lives, or it could be headline stuff, that people would gasp at. The truth is that we have all experienced or are experiencing disappointment with God in our circumstances.

I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not going to give you “Three Easy Steps to Avoid Disappointment with God”—I’ve yet to discover them. But what I give you today I hope will enable you to better understand what you are going through and help you to find the strength to continue to walk when it hurts and it doesn’t make sense to keep on walking, with God’s sustenance.

This morning we will take a look at an OT passage that addresses the subject of disappointment with God. What God is saying to us this morning, through the mouth of this prophet, is that we will find the sustenance to walk when it hurts as we come to a proper understanding of who God is and we willingly exchange our finite strength for His infinite power.

1. An Age-old Problem

Isaiah begins by addressing an age-old problem…why?Why me, God? Why have you turned your back on me? Why don’t you listen to my cries? Don’t you care about what I’m going through? Is it too much to ask that you enter into my problems and solve them? Is this how you repay me for being loyal to you while those you hate you prosper? What’s the deal? Is anybody listening?

Disappointment with God is almost as old as time itself. Throughout the scriptures we find countless examples of believers in God who experienced disappointment with God. Even in the Gospels we discover that Jesus, the Son of God, was not immune to feelings of disappointment with God.

Philip Yancey, in his book, Disappointment with God, suggests that there are three fundamental questions that plague us as Christians, yet we are generally hesitant to ask them aloud. The three questions are: Is God unfair? Is God silent? Is God hidden? The manner in which we choose to answer these questions then directly affects our perception of God and how we will live out our faith. There are three basic conclusions and responses that we can come to. God is and thus we reject him.

God is
The first is that we can conclude that God is unfair, God is silent, and God is hidden. We can choose to view God as a cruel cosmic being who delights in our suffering. When we choose to believe this way, we usually wind up determining that God is not. Our disappointment with God can lead us to believe that what the Bible has to say about a loving, nurturing, responding God is all false—just wishful, “pie-in-the-sky” ramblings—because we didn’t see the evidence we needed to validate such claims. Unfortunately, this has been the decision of many.

God is not…it is all me
The second resolve that we can come to is that God is not unfair, that He is not silent, and that He is not hidden, so the problem must be with us. There must be some sin or defect in our faith that is the reason behind the suffering we are experiencing. God is chiding us or trying to teach us some wonderful lesson. And generally, the supposed lesson that we are to learn is simply to “have more faith and then the problems will disappear.” The results of such a conclusion are just as devastating since it leads people into a defeatist attitude. So Christianity then just becomes for them a normal miserable life, just with more rules and heaven will then make up for the misery when we eventually go to glory.

God is and beyond my understanding
The third choice we can make is to believe that God is not unfair, that He is not silent, and that He is not hidden, but that we simply do not understand all there is to know about God or how He is working in the world, in general, or in our lives, in particular. Instead of blaming ourselves for the troubles we experience, we leave room for the fact that God operates on another plane. This does not minimize the disappointment we experience; it simply gives us a different vantage point from which to view our circumstances.

I believe that much of our disappointment with God stems from the fact that we have misconceptions about who He is coupled with misinterpretations of many biblical promises. Each of us has an idea of who God is. How we view God has a profound influence on the satisfaction level we experience in our relationship with Him. At this point we could end up feeling that we are owed something because we have given our lives to God.

2. An Ageless God

This is the place to which Isaiah now points the complaining Israelites. He shifts from the fact that we face an age-old problem to the reality of an ageless God. He reminds the people of who God is.

Isaiah begins by reminding the people of whom it is that they believe they have a case against. He is appalled that they would respond this way toward God in light of who He is. It was to the people of Israel that the clearest revelation of God had been given. What Isaiah is saying in essence to them is, “Have you forgotten who God is?

Eternal Creator – will
He starts with the reality of the eternality of God and His relationship to all things as their Creator. God has always been and He will always be. Without God there is nothing. He is the one Reality upon which every other reality is dependent. Remove God from the picture, and the picture ceases to be.

Infinite in power and knowledge
Then Isaiah speaks of the power and knowledge of God. God is an inexhaustible resource. He has never experienced fatigue or weakness in even the most remote sense. Even when His might is displayed in some great act, such as the creation of the universe, it was of no consequence or strain to Him. His power is so great that we are told the He merely spoke the worlds into existence: “Let there be”…and it was so. And His knowledge, we cannot even begin to imagine comprehending.

Provider of all that is needed
Isaiah then moves on to remind the people of Israel of what God does for them. V. 29 states, He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak. The very thing that we are in need of most when we experience disappointment with God is what He already offers to us and supplies us with. Since God does not grow tired or weary, He can be depended upon for strength and refreshing at any moment.

We think we can control God
What happens is that we think that we can define God and thus control God…therefore God is answerable to us. If God doesn’t pass our test we whine. But God does not need to pass our test. You would think we would learn a lesson from Job who said, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (42:3b).

3. A Timely Answer

In the final two verses of this passage, Isaiah gives us an ageless God’s timely answer to an age-old problem.

Weakness is a universal experience
In v. 30, we are given a universal truth that we often times forget: Everybody experiences weakness. There is not one person on the face of the planet who has never been tired and who will not be tired again. We can only go without rest for so long, and then we must stop and regain our strength.

I think that I’m pretty fit and strong, but now I know I am not. Tayla is a creature of perpetual motion. I can play with her, I can lift her onto slides…but after the 10th time I falter…I realise how weak I really am. Isaiah reminds us that even the strongest, the least likely to falter, eventually give in to fatigue. It is a part of the natural order that governs the world we live in.

Weakness is a perfect euphemism for describing the source of disappointments we face, including our disappointment with God. We experience disappointment because there are inherent weaknesses in the world in which we live. There are also weaknesses in our understanding of the world in which we live. When things don’t turn out the way we perceived that they should, we become disappointed, and more often than not our real disappointment is aimed at God.

It is important that we clearly recognise the difference between God and life—by life I mean the sum of our experiences of living. God is not life. Life is not God. Don’t confuse God with life. Bad things happen in an imperfect world—that’s part of life. We blame God for the circumstances we experience.

But strength comes to those who hope in God
In v. 31 we are given a word of hope to help us to make it through life’s disappointments: But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. We will become weary. We will meet with life’s disappointments. But that is not the final word. There is strength offered to those who will reach out and receive it.

It is important that we don’t jump to the mistaken conclusion that if we hope in the Lord, then he will “zap” us with his supernatural strength and our disappointments will vanish in an instant. I don’t want to mislead you because it doesn’t often happen that way. In the last half of this verse, Isaiah describes the three ways in which God renews our strength.

Please note that although God’s strength comes to us in three forms according to the passage and the first two are spectacular i.e. rising about disappointment (rising on wings of eagles) and being able to outrun our problems (Run and not grow weary). God’s strength comes to us also in the most ordinary way (walking and not being faint). In the sentence, the climax is most ordinary and not spectacular.

On the surface it doesn’t sound all that impressive. Think about it for a moment. Where is it most difficult to live? In the place where you soar in the clouds? In the place where you can run on endlessly? Or in the place where you simply walk and have to keep on walking? God’s strength usually comes to us in the ordinary ways. We don’t live life soaring in the clouds or running in the fast lane—life is a matter of persistent walking.

It is in the dark stretches of life that the most difficult thing to do is to continue to walk and not quit. It is when we are faced with disappointing circumstances that we need the strength to just “keep on keepin’ on” and not give up. God meets us where we live and renews our strength so that we can continue to walk when we feel like we just can’t go on anymore. There won’t be any great heights achieved or spectacular strength displayed, just the strength that we need to make it through—the assurance of His presence with us and in us.

Conclusion
I haven’t made any lofty promises of a “pie-in-the-sky” solution to the problem of disappointment with God—there is no easy answer. The problem is real. It is intense at times. And it will be with us throughout our lives. It is part of life. We can’t escape it, so the real issue before us is, how are we to respond?

There is but one appropriate response to disappointment with God and that is faith. Faith that will continue to hope against all hope that God can be trusted even if there is no visible evidence to support such a position. Philip Yancey writes, “If we insist on visible proofs from God, we may well prepare the way for a permanent state of disappointment. True faith does not so much attempt to manipulate God to do our will as it does to position us to do his will”

When you face disappointment with God remember that it is an age-old problem—just part of life. But also remember that we have an ageless God who is able to give us strength to overcome our weaknesses. The answer that He gives us is to demonstrate unwavering faith in the face of our disappointments and keep on believing that He will come and renew our strength so that we can walk and not become weary. Disappointments will come, but God gives us the strength to keep on walking even when it hurts.