Verse of the Day: You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you. - 2 Chronicles 20:17
Memory of the month: And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" —Luke 24:32
Today's reading: NUMBERS 35-36 MARK 10:1-31
Way Down Deep?
"How could God do this to us?", the girl asked her mother after the death of her brother. This is common when we lose someone we love. People blame God in anger. But God knew this would happen.
How can really bad stuff happen to really good folks? How can God let it happen? Trials, pain, loss, cancer....
Life is fragile and short-too short to blame God but we do. But we must look forward to the day when we rise above the pain and see with His eyes. We have to know that as big as God is, our pain-the pain of the whole world -is not bigger than the love of God.
It would be easy for me to say,"Instead of grinding our teeth in anger in the middle of pain or horrifying uncertainty, take the thought captive-stop your mind-be still-let the Lord hold you in His arms in the middle of the storm...".
It is easy to say that our mind's eye should be on all the blessings we miss instead of aiming and throwing our stones at God.
It is easy to give what we call "Sunday school answers"(the answers we know the teacher wants to hear).
What do we know? What do 'they' know? It is not 'their' pain. It is not 'their' horrifying uncertainty. It is yours and you must rise with it and go to sleep with it or be awake in the dark with it.
But, I'm going to be predictable and do the only thing I know. I will continue to point us all to the Lord God I know.
Psalm 139:11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”— 12even the darkness is not dark to You, but the night shines like the day, for darkness is as light to You. 13For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb
Nothing escapes God; nothing surprises God. He knows His creation of man and world is flawed because of sin. He knows our troubles and struggles and He knows we all grow old.
But God is light. God is healing. God is joy. God is tenderness. God is strength. He is peace.
God is present. He is here. He never leaves. In the hardest thing I have personally experienced in my entire life, I knew way down deep that God never left my heart. Yes, I let pain and sorrow mask His presence at times but when exhaustion seemed to be all that was left-there was a tear from God's cheek for me- a tear like that which Jesus wept for Lazarus his friend. And Like Lazarus, the Lord called my name and began to remove the wrappings of the 'grave time' and brought me out little by little and is still lifting-when I take the strength to look.
You are right. No one person knows what you feel.
When we are way down deep-The Lord is already there. He will be everywhere and anywhere we find ourselves-so find Him-whatever it takes-find Him. He is the only one who truly knows your pain.
God is the only one who knows where you can be.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Our God, our Lord, is our hope and our future.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
Forgive me for forgetting Your blessings. Help me to lift up those around me who hurt.
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