Moments of Quiet Truth

"For He wounds, but he binds up; he shatters, but his hands heal." Job 5:18 Meditating on pain in the lives of those I love. God Himself can be the agent afflicting the pain on the life of those I love. He takes responsibility for it and says it comes from Him. How do I respond to this revelation of God? I need to sit with this reality but not stop there. He is also the agent of healing. He also sits with those who are in deep pain. He doesn't rush their healing. He doesn't grow impatient with them as they seek to navigate life during the process of restoration. He puts the broken back together again and He does it in a way the is personally detailed. He binds up wounds to make the wounded look more like Jesus at the end of the process than they were at the beginning. Are we patient with the hurting? Are we compassionate? "Compassion" and "sympathy" both come from words that mean to suffer with. Do we step into the pain of others (even strangers) a

 I'm reading today in Philippains 4 and the realization struck me that I might have misinterpreted what Paul was driving at in verse 13. The thing that he is able "to do" [English translation of the Greek "to have power to be able to"] is face whatever circumstance God gives Him with contentment. So often, we take this verse out of its context and apply it to whatever we're facing. That is not to say that God does not give us the grace to do what He calls us to do (spoken of in other parts of Scripture), but the immediate context of this verse is trust and contentment. Do I know how to be content and trust God, am I content and do I trust God when: I'm brought low - brought to a place of need and disappointment/failure, I abound - when I'm successful and do things well, when I have everything I need or face the privation of my daily needs? (see Romans 8:35-36) How does one learn this lesson? Does the context give us a clue? I think it does.

      A basic question to ask when you come to a particular passage of Scripture, and one that will eliminate much misunderstanding, mishandling, and misapplication of said text, is, "What kind of literature am I reading?" When we have a basic grasp of the type of literature, we can eliminate, to a great degree, confusion concerning the purpose for which the text was written. The Bible is filled with various types or genres of literature and each has a specific purpose and message to communicate. There is historical narrative (think most of the Old Testament). There is prophetic literature (foretelling of future events), wisdom literature (think Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes), and there are personal letters (think of much of Paul and Peter's letters to the churches in the New Testament). Each type of literature serves a specific purpose and should be read with that purpose in mind. We do this in daily life. We, for example, don't read a cookbook looking for the same