There are some things I know so well, so intimately. God doesn’t always remove us from the suffering (or whatever adversity is knocking on your door). In His sovereignty, He has chosen to let you ride out the storm. Suffering sucks (excuse my French)! It’s beyond sucking! But I know He is beside me through it all, sheltering me from worse things that could destroy me. I know this because…
“Great is his faithfulness. By his mercies we are kept from complete destruction.” Lamentations 3: 23
When suffering is relentless, like a faucet that won’t stop dripping… when all that our human eyes can see is pain, is when we can lose it. I lost it yesterday. I told God how pissed I am about my physical situation. “Is this the way you treat someone who is so devoted to you, who humbly serves you with nothing but adoration?” But I also know it is in times like these we can only rely on fact and not the way we feel. I instinctively navigate to the book of Jeremiah. My life seems to mirror his. Actually, Lamentations says it all…
“I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord’s anger. He has led me into darkness, shutting out all light. He has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long.
He has made my skin and flesh grow old. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress. He has buried me in a dark place, like those long dead.
He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains. And though I cry and shout, he has shut out my prayers. He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.
He has hidden like a bear or a lion, waiting to attack me. He has dragged me off the path and torn me into pieces, leaving me helpless and devastated. He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.
He shot his arrows deep into my heart. My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs. He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.
He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!”
The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this…” Lamentations 3: 1-21
But there is still one ray of hope. Only one. I know that by trusting in God’s faithfulness day by day makes us confident in His great Promises for the future.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
