I have been reading John Piper's Don’t Waste Your Life, and I am encouraged to re-examine my life. I shared some of my reflections at the Ladies Group meeting on 17 November 2010.
I like what John Piper (JP) said - it is not about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. I would have wasted life if I choose to live it my way. I would have wasted it if I reject or struggle with what GOD has put along my way. I would have wasted it if I do not purpose to glorify GOD with it, in whatever condition I may be in. My life is no longer in my control. In reality, it is never in my control. It is in the magnificent hands of our Sovereign Lord. GOD has a purpose in this life because He created me and He bought me. My life is not my own. It belongs to GOD. "You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (1Cor 6:20).
Two important lessons I learnt from the start - total surrender and total trust, without which it would be impossible to walk this journey. Surrender and trust will lead to peace. That is the starting point of this wonderful and incomprehensible yet will be delightful and glorious journey.
What can I make out of this journey? From the start, it looked so treacherous but as a child of God, more precious than the sparrows, even the hair on my head are numbered. How should I view it?’
Jonathan Edwards (JE) preached this truth from 1John 3:2 - "And it doth not yet appear what we shall be". He expounded this verse to mean that, "The godly are designed for unknown and inconceivable happiness." Unknown, yes, but inconceivable happiness for the godly; can it be? Do I believe it? How so? If so, I need to understand this inconceivable happiness. I want to take hold of this, and let it take root and dwell in my "wounded" body. Let me try to understand JE’s definition of happiness.
The glory of GOD does not consist merely in the creature's perceiving His perfections: for the creature may perceive the power and wisdom of God, and yet take no delight in it, but abhor it. Those creatures that so do, don't glorify GOD. Nor does the glory of GOD consist especially in speaking His perfections; for words avail not any otherwise than as they express the sentiment of the mind. This glory of GOD therefore consists in the creature's admiring and rejoicing and exulting in the manifestation of His beauty and excellency. So we see it comes to this at last: at the end of creation, GOD may communicate happiness to the creature.
To display the excellency of GOD without joy in it, we will display a shell of hypocrisy...if we claim to enjoy His excellency and do not display it for others to see and admire, we deceive ourselves.
I am still an early learner in practising (living) a life that delights in GOD. Sometimes I question my hypocrisy, my legalism. Do I just claim it or do I display it?
JP stated, The wasted life is the life without passion for the supremacy of GOD in all things for the joy of all people.
So can I find joy in my life with cancer, or will I waste my life with cancer? Is GOD still sovereign and does He reign supreme in this "wounded" body? Isaiah 43:6 – 7 states, "Bring My sons from afar and daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My Name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made."
GOD has specifically formed and created me for His glory. Cancer does not and cannot change this fundamental truth. Can GOD be glorified in the life of a cancer-stricken child of God? It is possible, if the sole intent and passion of such a life is the magnification and the excellency of GOD. Will there be opportunity to "delight in Him", exulting in His love and tenderness, as recipient of His compassion? Certainly there will be. I personally have been a recipient of His love, grace and compassion. As one experiences, in a special and personal way all this tenderness, outpouring of His love - one must proclaim this delight and exclaim this excellence. In doing so there is much, much happiness as JE puts it, IT IS inconceivable happiness!
"So glorify GOD in your body", exult and magnify His Name, the reward is this inconceivable happiness that GOD will communicate to us. May the Lord help me to delightfully display and proclaim His ways and His character, in response to the manner He is working in my life.
JP writes, “GOD loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever with a single passion to joyfully display His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life”.
People go deep with GOD when drought comes; we experience Him in our losses. Don't waste life by running away from pain. Don't ask GOD to take it away, if it is not His will. GOD wants to bless me and deepen my faith, my whole being with this cancer! "Everything created by GOD is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of GOD and prayer." (1Timothy 4:4-5). And it is true that "the one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies Me" (Psalm 50:23).
You are more than conquerors (Rom 8:37). A conqueror defeats, nullifies, subjugates his enemy. This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison (2 Cor 4:17). “Affliction, the former enemy is made the servant of godliness and humility and love.” - JP A life that is made godly is not a wasted life.
Every good poised to bless us and every evil arrayed against us, will in the end help us boast only in the cross, magnify Christ and glorify our Creator. It is better to lose our life than to waste it.
I praise and thank GOD, He has helped me to survive three and a half years of multiple myeloma. I find strength year after year, for His righteous right hand upholds me (Isaiah 41:10). And He has added blessing upon blessing on my family and I.
"I give thanks to you, O Lord my GOD, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever." Psalm 62:12
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