Of course you'll encounter trouble.
But behold a God of power who can take any evil
and turn it into a door of hope.
* Catherine Marshall *
Let's admit it.
Somewhere along the line we've secretly mused, 'why me?'
Too many spoke the lie that the Christian life included great heapings of lavish prosperity and unlimited health for those who named it and claimed it.
We figured that 1 + 1 = 2 and if we did all the right things then life would run rather smoothly and be relatively trouble-free.
Yet we found our own personal pathways strewn with messy heartbreak and surprising misfortune ... and the specific answers to prayer we yearned for never quite appeared.
We wondered if we somehow missed the boat.
*
We seemed to have forgotten Hebrews 11:36-39 where the passionate faith of New Testament martyrs led to destitution, persecution, and grisly, unspeakable deaths.
Jesus Himself said,' in this world you will have trouble' {John 16:33}. His own torturous crucifixion for our sins showed that He was not exempt from life's cruelties.
But there is a door of hope.
*
God specializes in turning our miseries into miracles, our woes into wonders, our disasters into deliverance. He offers a life-altering comfort right smack dab in the midst of the troubles and the wrongs that have come our way ... so that we in turn can offer hope to the next one down the line.
'Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God' {2 Corinthians 1:3-4}.
Emerging from our deepest sorrows, we are able to hold open the door of desperately needed hope to the next one down the line who's been yearning to know that there is a tomorrow. Our own deeply personal sufferings allow us to offer those shining rays of hope with empathy and authenticity.
Grace and mercy are given freely, intermingled with our tears and the compassion of Jesus Christ.
*
sharing with
