You are Never Alone

Yesterday was a wonderful day. I had the chance to enjoy lunch with a group of old friends in the cozy atmosphere of a home. We laughed and chatted for hours, catching up from our last lunch months ago. As I listened to the buzzing conversations around the table, it was apparent to me that God is moving and growing us all through a variety of tugs and trials that come our way. While I would never wish hardship on anyone, it was music to my ears to hear how God has been faithful sustaining each of us in our various trials. I think it would be agreed around the table that these trials have been good for us as it broadens our view of God, and that these trials are sovereignly designed to exercise our muscles of faith hope and trust in the God of grace, mercy and goodness.

I have been making it a practice for the last two years to read through the Bible in a year and plan to do so as long as I have breath. It is not an easy task and sometimes I feel like a marathon runner making the great push at the end to cross the finish line. Yesterday, as I was driving in my car listening to the Bible on CD thinking that I may need to keep on driving to Nebraska so I can finish listening to the end, I was struck by 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. Who would have thought that our lunch conversation would be such a comfort to me, and hopefully to the others around the table, as I reflected on these verses while I drove home at the end of the day.

God of All Comfort
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

The word of God is powerful. Not only did we all have a lunch appointment, we had a divine appointment with the God of all comfort, who comforts us so that we may comfort others. Thanks ladies that in a small way I could share in your suffering and share in your comfort!
 

Tested and Tried

Some days just seem to be of the kind that bedtime can't come soon enough. The thought of relief and the hope that tomorrow will be a better day do, momentarily, offer some sense of calm during the storm. Faith to believe in the promises of God and trusting the reliability of His character even feels like it is slipping away as as we try to muster the strength to endure. I wonder if that is what Job felt like in his trials and losses? And then, consider how his friends pummeled him to nearly the point of exhaustion. 

As I really struggle, at times, with a heavy heart trying to make sense of the many facets of affliction in my own life, I am reminded of Job's words,

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21

"Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10b

"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him..." Job 13:15

"For I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God."Job 19:25-26

" For he will complete what is appointed for me, and many such things are in his mind." Job 23:14

"I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."Job 42:2

Job was a man who suffered great things. He lost his wealth, his home,  his children, the steady and enduring faithfulness of his wife under the weight of trial, his health, and the faithfulness and understanding from his friends. It doesn't sound like there was much left. Yet,with all of his affliction and his why questions to God in the end he was able to see that God is God and He could be trusted even at the bottom. He understood that His redeemer lives. I need to remember that truth.

For a number of years I have relished the wise words that flow from the pen of Charles Spurgeon. He, too, suffered may things and wrote and spoke eloquently about the faith, trust and hope he found in the pages of scripture. Many of his musings can be found in his classic devotional Morning and Evening.  I hope you are blessed and encouraged by these words.

The tested genuineness of your faith. 1 Peter 1:7

Untested faith may be true faith, but it is sure to be small faith, and it is likely to remain little as long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: Tempests are her trainers, and bolts of lightning are her illuminators. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship does not move to its harbor; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush and howl, and let the waters lift themselves, though the vessel may rock and her deck may be washed with waves and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway toward her desired haven. No flowers are as lovely a blue as those that grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam as brightly as those that glisten in the midnight sky; no water tastes as sweet as that which springs up in the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tested faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness if you had not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God's strength if you had not been supported in the flood. Faith increases in quality, assurance, and intensity the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too. Do not let this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: The full portion will be measured out to you in due course. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise Him for that degree of holy confidence you have now attained: Walk according to that rule, and you will still have more and more of the blessing of God, until your faith will remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.  Taken from Morning and Evening by Charles H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg, copyright 2003