Friday, July 6, 2012

Devotional 93 Suffering


"Hardships press us up against God."    When God Weeps  Joni Eareckson Tada 

1 Peter 5:6-7 "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." 

I was communicating with a friend the other day on the internet about the goodness of God. She had experienced a divorce years ago. Shortly after that, one of her sons died of diabetic complications in his twenties and another twenty-something son was in a car accident which paralyzed him from the waist down. I wrote: 

"With divorce, death, paralysis, and I don't know what else in your life, do you still trust God? Is He still loving to you? Are you ever mad at Him? 

Are you able to say as Job did, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." and in verse 1:10 Job says: "Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

Are you able to bless and praise His name when you know full well God had the power to stop the tragedy? Is God always working out His perfect and precious will when we suffer? Could suffering actually be a part of His good and glorious plan for us?

May the Lord continue to grow you closer to Him and all His beauty. May no trial pull you away from His loving embrace. May you look at the hard truths in scripture and still lift you eyes to heaven and cry, even in the midst of pain, 'Blessed be the name of the Lord!' "

Amos 3:6 When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?

Lamentations 3:38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?

I Samuel 2:6-7 The LORD brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

Ephesians 1:11 God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.

I am asking the Lord for you, my reader, and for myself, that God might give us the grace to respond to trials with  joy. They come to all of us in differently wrapped  packages. May we open this unsolicited gift with a thankful heart, trusting in the love of God.

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