This morning’s sermon looked at the subject of Battles & Blessings. So often, we are keen to receive God’s blessings, but would prefer not to have to face any battles! It seems, though, that God uses battles as the pathway to blessings and that we learn far more in the difficult times than on the smooth paths.
Matt Redman’s song ‘It Is Well’ says:
‘You lead us through battles;
You lead us to blessing
And You make us fruitful
In the land of our sufferings, God.’ (‘It Is Well’, Matt Redman & Jonas Myrin)
God is not the author of evil; He is good and all He does is good. (Ps 119:68) We live in a fallen world where there are trials and toils which are now an inevitable part of life on earth and we have an enemy who seeks to destroy and kill in comparison to Jesus who came to bring life in all its fulness. (Jn 10:10) No matter what battle we face, however, we can be sure that God will lead us through the battle to the other side, to the place of victory, so that, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, ‘no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.’ (Is 54:17)
God is a God of blessing (see Eph 1:3, Ps 21:1-7. James 1:17). The blessings He pours out make us rich spiritually and He gives us so many material and relational blessings as well. The wonder of God is that He is able to bring good from our sorrows and suffering; Joseph named his sons Manasseh (‘God has made me forget‘) and Ephraim (‘twice fruitful’), because he knew how God turned his suffering and anguish and injustice to favour and blessing and promise (see Gen 41:50-52). Matt Redman says, ‘You get to see that God is not only kind enough to get you through those times, He’s kind enough to make sure you get something good out of them. So often the soil of our suffering is where He plants good things in our lives.’
The song starts with the line ‘our scars are a sign of grace in our lives.’ So often, we view scars as evidence of something unpleasant and painful, but they also tell the testimony of healing and recovery. Life brings us many wounds and scars, but God’s grace is sufficient for all our needs (see 2 Cor 12:9) and by God’s grace, we will come through the wounds and the trials and the battles. God will bring us through and we will be able to look back on the battles and see how God was Lord in it all, redeeming everything for His glory (see Gen 50:20, Rom 8:28).