\ Many of us, through prayer groups or messaging each other, have discussed the challenges of PAIN AND SUFFERING in life. Whether emotional or physical, the issue is not whether or not we will experience pain, but the ACUTENESS of it. Pain is a strange surprise to us….we readily receive the power of God to worship and witness but do not know how to depend upon Him in private trial.
How do you trust God when you cannot see Him? How do you cry out for His help when your heart is in anguish?
How do you lean upon Him as YOUR intercessor? In His goodness, He gives His Word, His church and the lives of those who have gone on before us.
Personally, it is the lives of those who have ENDURED, not ENTERTAINED who draw me the most. Those who have been through the jungle of physical trial (and therefore emotional) trial with a soft-hearted determination to grow in Him. They have struggles (in the flesh) with self-pity, anger and pride yet, gained VICTORY (in the Spirit) through humility, brokenness and deep private worship of God.
The lives of Adonirum and Ann Judson of Burma and Robert and Mary Moffit of Africa give me encouragement in their constant commitment to “usefulness”, not necessarily personal fulfillment. How glorious to have our mind expanded to worship God not just for what I ask Him for but because HE is! Can He move? Yes. Can He heal? Yes. Can He change us? Most definitely. May we live in lives of “THANKFUL TENSION” . Tension because we want freedom from pain but thankful because He is and we are allowed to see.
Perhaps this will be the week He will cultivate in us a mind of thankfulness and a yielded heart of patience.
Our worship will be a fragrance to the Creator God who grandly hung the stars in the sky and STILL bends His ear to hear my eager, yet smaller, requests.
Love to you in the One who knows you best,
Tristie
