Life is a series of "conflicting" realities and principles. It's been said, that without darkness there is no light, without sadness there is no joy, without difficulty there is no ease, without sickness there is no health, without wrong there is no right, and without sin there is no righteousness. The truth is, each of these things exist with or without the other. However, in order to come to a comparative understanding, (a quantitative measure of either), we must have both.
In our walk of faith we encounter these "conflicting" realities and principles on a very regular basis. For instance, we've all prayed for people that have a tremendous amount of faith not to mention we are moving in great faith as well, only to find at the end that nothing has really happened or worse yet, something has gone terribly wrong. An example of this might look like this; there are two people vying for the same job, one a believer and one a nonbeliever. After much prayer, faith, and maybe some fasting over the believer, the nonbeliever is awarded the job. We go away with "conflict" in our souls.
Years ago, I experienced this while praying for my wife. She had been sick for a number of years, 10 to be specific, and I prayed faithfully every day. Being a pastor I was of course praying for others as well and many of these were being healed, but not my wife! Both Kathleen and I were left "conflicted". During this time someone prophesied over Kathleen that "The depth of the valley prophesies the height of the mountain". Wow, this is not only a profound statement, but it confirms the idea of "conflicting" realities and principles.
The degree of conflict itself brings the ability for this quantitative measure. In other words, we only understand great joy if there's been great sorrow, health if there's been sickness, and righteousness if there's been sin. Our praise report's come from moving between the two, and the magnitude of the praise corresponds proportionately to the conflict.
The Lord has established life in this present age in such a way that we are able to have comparative understanding and quantitative measurement of both the good and the bad. The Bible teaches us to embrace these conflicts and to keep our eyes on the Lord no matter what. This is the substance of faith, the things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.
Shalom,
Pastor Bruce
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