03/29/2022
Sometimes our life circumstances don’t make sense. We wonder what God is up to, and more pressing, we may even doubt and wonder if God will come through at all. But doubt is not the same as unbelief — as we see most beautifully in the example of John the Baptist, who found himself suffering in prison because of his allegiance to God. In a moment of questioning and doubt, John wondered if God would come through for him.
In Jesus’ response to John in Matthew 11:4-6, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1. But He omitted one very important phrase. He said nothing about the prisoners being set free.
From Jesus’ response, John understood that his faith, which got him imprisoned in the first place, would not set him free from the prison cell he found himself in. What John was expecting would not be what he would experience. And Jesus didn’t come through in the way John had hoped.
But John’s story does not end in despair. He did not fall into the trap of unbelief. Nor did he “stumble,” or fall away, on account of Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus alluded to John later in His ministry as an example of righteousness. (Matthew 21:32)
What we can learn from John is that he moved not from uncertainty to certainty but from uncertainty to trust. He learned what we must all learn: In God’s hands, even what seems senseless is sacred and full of meaning and purpose.
Friend, I’m not sure what you are facing in your life today. But if you are struggling to give your hopes and hurts to God, you are in good company. We’re all limping along, learning to trust Jesus in all the things.
The good news is that Jesus not only suffered for us, but He suffers with us. He enters our pain. And no matter the final outcome of any situation, Jesus gives us the grace to walk faithfully under the weight of our cross and into His glory.
-Ruth Schwenk
What hopes and hurts can you give to God today?
