We Turn To God

Photo Credit: Gwangjin Go

(By Theanna Joyce )

If I squinted, I could almost be in Cancun. Sparkling blue water. Soft velvety sand. White fluffy clouds. Except it was 10 degrees and the water was colder than a bucket of ice. 

Still, with my hoodie and jeans on, my face turned to the sun; it was perfect. There’s something about feeling the warmth of the sun on a cold day that just floods me with peace. 

The Bible writes quite a lot about turning to God, and I often picture it like turning my face to the sun to feel its rays. 

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes of how the believers there were known for how they turned to God from idols to serve Him and wait for His Son who delivers from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). 

I wonder, are we people who turn to God?

In Paul’s letter to these believers, he acknowledges their strengths and calls them to encourage each other in the hope they have in Christ. In Chapter 1:6, Paul writes of how these believers “became imitators of us and of the Lord, for [they] received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”  

It’s such an interesting contrast, isn’t it? Affliction and joy. 

The Thessalonians received the word in the midst of severe suffering, yet they had the joy of the Holy Spirit. The suffering did not preclude the joy, nor did the joy erase the suffering. Neither canceled out the other. Even at the time of this letter, these believers were experiencing trials, and Paul sent Timothy to encourage them (3:3). 

I think we need to pause here for a minute and acknowledge that we too have experienced hardship and suffering.

Likely, many of us are currently experiencing some right now.

As the Holy Spirit works in us and we turn to God, we can experience His joy, but this does not negate the hardship. We don’t do ourselves any favors by denying the difficulties that we are experiencing.

No matter how much I squinted on that beach, I wasn’t in Cancun, nor would I magically appear there by denying the chill in the air. 

While we certainly don’t want to wallow in our suffering, and indeed we do have a wonderful hope, I think Satan has deceived many of us into thinking it is ungodly to acknowledge the pain and weariness we feel. 

Moreover, in hardship like this, fears and doubts are quick to rise up! One of the reasons Paul wrote this letter to the Thessalonian believers is because they had feared that believers who had died would miss out on the return of Christ. They needed to be properly informed and they needed encouragement. 

We need encouragement too. Now is the time for the encouragers among us to rise up and use their spiritual gift for the building up of the Church. Paul tells us, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (5:11). 

So we encourage one another and build one another up, but what does this look like practically? 

What do we do with the heaviness of our pain and the confusion of our fears? What do we do when the doubts creep in that maybe God’s plan isn’t for our good or that maybe He isn’t good at all?

Platitudes certainly aren’t helpful. If I’m going through a hard time and doubting God’s goodness, and my friend texts me a verse about God’s goodness, for example, Romans 8:28 or Matthew 7:11, I’m not going to suddenly stop doubting. A wiser friend would sit with me in the doubt for a little while, and gently encourage me to call out to God even though I don’t see His goodness. Perhaps she would turn to Psalm 44 with me and ask God to “Awake!” and not to “hide [His] face” but to “come to our help” because “our soul is bowed down to the dust” (Psalm 44:23-26). 

The Bible tells us He is good. Yet when our experiences lead us to believe something different, we must turn to Him and cry out to Him to strengthen — or restore — our faith. When hardship and suffering threaten to overwhelm us, we must turn to Him and tell Him so. And when any fear rises up in us that He will not do something He has said He will do, then we must turn to Him with our fears and cry out for Him to be our refuge.

Paul writes that he was worried for the Thessalonian believers because he knew that the tempter would try to tempt them away from Christ (3:5). 

Is the tempter tempting you? Will you turn to God in your suffering or hide it and turn back? Will you turn to Him with your fears and doubts or turn away? Satan is at work trying to bury us in fear and doubt, and trying to deceive us so that we miss out on the consolation and comfort God has for us. But we have a God who is mightier than Satan, and He is so patient with us.

He is our Comforter, is He not? Will we turn to Him for comfort?

The next time you feel the sun on your face, I pray it will remind you to turn to God. In our moments of suffering, pain and doubt, may we be people who turn to God and say to Him with the psalmist, “But I will trust in You” (Psalm 55:23).