RedFruit » Sovereignty of God

Don’t Waste Your Fibromyalgia

phunni — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:40:26 +0000

Way back in February 2006 John Piper wrote an article called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer“. In the last year or so I find myself regularly coming back to this article in an attempt to help me understand how to handle suffering. With my own fibromyalgia and, more recently, the discovery that my mother has a rare, terminal cancer it is something that has become more important for me to understand.

With that in mind; I wanted to write, based on Piper’s points, a short article on how to not waste my fibromyalgia. First let me be very clear about something: I am absolutely not comparing fibromyalgia to cancer. Cancer is, in many cases, terminal. It requires aggressive treatment with often unpleasant side effects. Fibromyalgia, whilst a horrible condition, is better than many cancers. Unless, of course, the cancer is easy and relatively painless to treat. I have no idea how many, if any, cancers that can be said of.

Either way fibromyalgia, along with CFS/ME, is not a pleasant condition to have to live with. I believe that it is God’s gift to me for the purpose of achieving his glory and my good. I am not currently able to see how that will work out to be the case, but I believe it with all my heart.

This article, then, is an attempt to help me understand how best to respond to the gift that God has given to me and how to treasure him most in my circumstances. As I have said, cancer is, in many cases, terminal. This means that some of Piper’s points are not relevant to fibromyalgia. As a result I have only 7 points instead of 10.

You will waste you fibromyalgia if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.

Nothing can happen unless God permits it. If he knows that someone is going to develop fibromyalgia, he can prevent it. The fact that he does not shows that he must have some purpose in it. Since God is wise and loving we can call that purpose design. There is no real room for a free will argument here (nor the time to refute one anyway) since no-one chooses fibromyalgia. I must believe that my current state of health is designed by God for some purpose; if I do not believe that then I am in danger of wasting it.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

Romans 8 makes it clear that God will withhold no good thing from those who love him and that he will turn all things to their good. If God has allowed this to happen to me then it must be not only for his glory, but also for my good. It is therefore a gift. I will, ultimately, be better of having had this condition than if I have lived my entire life in good health.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you spend too much time reading about fibromyalgia and not enough time reading about God.

As Piper says, “Ignorance is not a virtue.” It’s not wrong to read about fibromyalgia and to try and learn about it. But my response to this problem must be to seek to know more of God in my life. One of the symptoms in fibromyalgia is extreme fatigue. Scripture makes it clear that the solution is to seek more of God:

“but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

I must learn to rest in God or “wait” on him. I must do this by reading scripture, reading books about God and by seeking to enjoy his presence. The more I do this, the better I become at it, the less I will waste my fibromyalgia.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.

One of the challenges presented by fibromyalgia is solitude. I am no longer able to make it to church as often as I’d like and when I do get there I’m usually unable to stay for the whole meeting. When we meet people socially I have difficulty concentrating for any length of time. I am particularly poor in crowded or noisy environments. As a result I feel far more isolated than before. My family and I are blessed by the love of those around us. People have prepared meals for us. Others have come round to catch up and pray. There is one particularly good friend who comes to my house every Friday morning to pray. Even with all this it’s very important that I make an effort to spend time with people and encourage them. I need to make an effort to return the love that is shown to us. Not out of some sense of debt or duty, but because I genuinely love these people.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you grieve as those who have no hope.

One day I will be with Christ and free of all sickness and pain. I pray every day that God will heal me; but, even if he does not, I still have a firm and unshakeable hope in him and his salvation.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you treat sin as casually as before.

Sin is worse than fibromyalgia. It’s far more dangerous to me. Having fibromyalgia helps me to keep things in perspective in a way that is difficult when things are going well. This season is therefore an excellent opportunity to attack sin in my life. There is also, however, a great danger than I allow my condition to lead me into sin. It’s easy to lose hope and very easy to allow laziness or impatience to take hold.

You will waste your fibromyalgia if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

It’s too easy to complain and make my life all about how difficult things are. The danger is that I make Christ look less beautiful than he is. He is worth more than life and health. If I am never healed, but am able to know him more then this has all been worth it. If I am somehow able to use this time as an opportunity to show his glory to others then my fibromyalgia has not been wasted.

I Can Do All Things…

phunni — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:31:32 +0000

Over the last few months I have begun to wonder more and more whether or not some of my assumptions about my health are true. For example: it feels like I couldn’t possibly do any of the things that God has called me to do, or gifted me to do in the past. My health simply doesn’t seem to allow for that.

However, perhaps God has allowed my health to become this way in order to show His strength through me. If it is true that God’s strength is magnified by my weakness then I am a wonderful opportunity for God to be very strong! Paul, in 2 Corinthians, talks about his “thorn … in the flesh”. He doesn’t reveal to us the exact nature of his thorn but says:

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:8-10 ESV)

I believe that God can heal me. I will continue to pray for that and to ask others to pray as well. My healing is also a way that God can be glorified in me. In the meantime, however, I am going to try and understand how I can best be strong in the weakness of my Fibromyalgia and to know the sufficiency of the grace of God.

If God has called me to plant churches, to preach, to lead worship and; perhaps; other things, then maybe I don’t need to be healed to do that. Perhaps I won’t do any of those things until God has healed me, or perhaps God intends to demonstrate His grace through using me to do all those things, and be a good husband and father, whilst still suffering from Fibromyalgia.

Whatever His plans, I pray that through this experience my family will come to know and love Him more so that he would be glorified in our situation.

I welcome any thoughts on this – please feel free to comment.

A Sovereign God and a Responsible Man

phunni — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:17:09 +0000

One of the subjects that I have given most thought to in my life is the sovereignty of God. In particular, I’ve wrestled with the implications of a sovereign God on human freedom and responsibility.

Let me start out by saying that my position is very much a reformed one. I have come to a place (and actually been here for years) where I love the fact that God is sovereign ruler over all. I love that, of everyone in the entire universe, God alone is entirely unfettered in his freedom (Ps. 115:3). It is of enormous comfort to me to know that he is in control; that every situation I might encounter is planned by one who is for me, who works all things for the good of those who love him and whom he has sovereignly called according to his purpose.

I have recently read through 1&2 Kings again and have been so struck with how unashamedly the author(s) ascribe sovereignty to God. Many significant events are described as happening in response to something God said or promised – often a generation or so before!

The main issue that people (certainly in western cultures) seem to have when discussing the sovereignty of God is that of free will. Sometimes people will simply say that the there is a tension to be held between mankind’s free will and the sovereignty of God. There are many who contend that “the one thing God will never do is override your free will”. For example:

Jesus is coming back for a Bride that will be without spot or blemish. He is calling His Church to clean up their act and allow His Holy Spirit to begin this sanctifying work in their lives. However, the choice is up to each individual believer. Sanctification is not something that can be forced upon anyone. God really respects everyone’s free will and He will never force His will or His ways on anyone - bible-knowledge.com.

I also recently came across openness theology. This seeks to put limits on God, particularly in reference to his knowledge of the future, in order to facilitate our ability to freely make choices. My concern with this is simply that it seems to be to be, at best, bordering on blasphemy and having no foundation that I can see in scripture. Perhaps one day some open theists will read this and be able to point out what I have missed.

Despite the obsession we seem to have with how to balance God’s sovereignty with our apparent free will; it seems to me that the biblical tension is actually between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility. Certainly this seems to be what Paul is most keen to address in Romans 9:

9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

ESV

This also seems very evident from several episodes in scripture – one of the clearest being David’s census. The passage clearly shows that not only did David sin because God caused him to; but God then also held him responsible for that sin and punished him for it.

In some ways this may seem more difficult to reconcile than the question of free will. Our immediate response is that this doesn’t seem fair. God is the one who is ultimately in control of what happens and what decisions are made and yet we are still held responsible for our decisions and actions. Paul seems to think that this is a perfectly reasonable concern. In fact he addresses exactly this question in the same section of Romans 9. The biblical response to the question of whether this is just is simply that God is God and, as the creator, is justified in using his creation as he pleases.

Coming full circle – does this mean that we don’t have free will? The only assertion that seems biblical to me is that, if we do, it is subect to God’s will and his purposes. We may have free will – but it is not absolute and unfettered. Certainly the idea that “the one thing God will never do is override your free will” seems to me to be entirely unfounded on scripture.

I recently came across this very interesting video which may shed some light. Perhaps we can learn something from how marketing strategies can manipulate us into making decisions, despite being certain that we are freely making those decisions. It seems far easier to understand how we might have the perception of absolute free will even though we are all subject to the plans and purposes of God.

Ultimately, however, we are left able to be confident that God is sovereign over all things; but we also need to remember that we are responsible for all of our own actions – whether our choices are freely made or not.