7735	Forums / Main Forum / The Purpose Of Pain	on: March 10, 2007, 02:38:10 PM
Quote "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) So, MBG, have you yourself experienced the truth of this passage? Changing the circumstances are only a small part of relieving the suffering. Think of it this way. My circumstances are part of what makes me , me. In other words we are partly the product of the times we live. We vacillate in the circumstances we find ourselves by trying to get out of them or ignoring them. We seldom consider the reasons for being in the position under the circumstances we find ourselves in. Because we are such secularist, we develop plans that will alleviate the pain of worry, fear, or shame. We are more interested in what will work than in what value the circumstance is in our growing in faith. There is no circumstance that we are going through that has not been ordered by God. God is not a clock maker who leaves the clock to run on its own time. Gods purposes are like a stream that are always flowing and our lives are the effect of that stream. We are never in a neutral position in our lives before a holy God. We are always in His Fatherly hand of time continuance. He is working out His plan in our live as much as He is concerned about the time and the effect of His name being glorified. Once we belong to Him we are under the care of our Fathers great name. Our view of our circumstances is determined by our understanding of the sovereignty of God. He is always working, creating, designing the shape and extent of our lives in this time paradigm so that we are a book opened up before Him in His presence. Forget about legal conviction which contain elements of inordinate fear. That is a pagan concept. Gods grace is determinate, in that it precedes all our goings and comings. From Gods view we are going to be conformed to His image because He has already determined outside of time our entire finite existence. He will bring us to glory by gracing us with His determinate decrees that we will be sanctified in His time with His power. From our view we are always praying for more grace to avoid sin,  over come temptation , receive the gifts He has for us, blessing beyond anything we could ask or think and assurance that we are in His fold. These two dimensions are the onus for dependence on our God by seeing Him as God. \"Nothing in my hand i bring only to thy cross i cling.\" In this converging of the two dimensions is the essence of our extremely supernatural existence. In this is the i-thou dimensions. We are receiving from Him all that we need and He is being glorified in all that we do.