Page 59 - The Gate and the Way

commonly called “Brittle Bone Disease.” I am laid up in a hospital bed at this moment with
multiple fractures to my left leg. I experienced my first fracture at the age of seven when I
broke my thumb. Soon thereafter I broke my right leg twice, my left leg once, my right
elbow twice and my left elbow once, and fractured ribs. All of this occurred by the time I
turned 15. In my adult years I broke my right ankle while in my thirties, experiencing a
partial tear to the anterior cruciate ligament in the right knee at the same time. I have
dislocated my shoulders numerous times, and now I have sustained several fractures to my
lower left leg.
Even as a child I understood that it was ultimately God who determined my afflictions.
When I was around ten or twelve years old and had just experienced another fracture, I
remember asking my Dad why God chose for me to suffer these things. I have learned much
about the purpose of suffering in the years since then. I still perceive the hand of God in the
things I suffer. I do not merely say that He permits me to suffer. I confess that He causes
me to suffer. Yet, I also understand that a God of love will only afflict His children with good
intent. There is no evil judgment, or censure of God, when I say that He causes me to suffer.
Some Christians attribute all suffering to Satan. Paul himself spoke of his affliction as
being “a messenger of Satan.” The Scriptures reveal that Satan’s access to the Christian is
restricted. He can only do that which God grants him permission to do. In the Gospels
Christ tells Peter that Satan had demanded permission to sift Peter as wheat (Luke 22:31).
Had Christ not granted permission to Satan, he could not have come against Peter. We see
the same truth revealed in the book of Job. Satan could only touch Job’s life insofar as
Yahweh permitted.

Job 1:12
Then Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put
forth your hand on him."

Job 2:6
So Yahweh said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life."

There is a magnificent promise found in the New Testament whereby God assures
Christians that their trials and tests will always be measured to them with great care.
Yahweh has promised that no child of His will ever face a trial, or temptation greater than
their ability to walk victoriously through it. I have often found great consolation in this
verse that I memorized in my youth.

I Corinthians 10:13
For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or
where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man
[that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and
that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as
man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature],
and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your
ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He
will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that
you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.
[Amplified Bible]