“Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” John 18: 11
This is the scripture given for yesterday’s Streams in the Desert devotional. I happen to be reading it over and over. It really resonates with me. Earlier this evening, I guess you can say I had somewhat of a meltdown. I just HATE the physical limitations. It feels like I am in prison. My body just doesn’t want to cooperate. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. Nobody understands… I mean nobody else who is made of flesh and bones and stuck here on this planet. I’m crying to God, not because I’m afraid or hopeless, but because my heart is broken and I just really feel that I can’t take any more of this. I’m not looking for sympathy: I’m just trying to be real. I think it’s important to let people know that even though I love and trust God with all my heart, my emotions can sometimes get the best of me.
Anyway, I want you to read part of what this devotional says… “Having your brightest aspirations as a young person forever crushed, bearing burdens daily that are always difficult, and never seeing relief; finding yourself worn down by poverty while simply desiring to do good for others and provide a comfortable living for those you love; being shackled by an incurable physical disability; being completely alone, separated from all those you love, to face the trauma of life alone; yet in all these, still being able to say through such a difficult school of discipline, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”—this is faith at its highest, and spiritual success at its crowning point.”
“Great faith is exhibited not so much in doing as in suffering.” Charles Parkhurst
This devotion further points out that to have true sympathy, one must suffer himself. It definitely does not have to be the same type of suffering… but it has to be suffering…period. Afflictions are the price we pay to sympathize. Those who wish to help others must be willing to face the cross. There are many people I’ve met, just here in Blogland, that are ministering with the comfort God had first ministered to them through their heartache. If we look at the psalms, they were written out of David’s suffering…but aren’t they the most comforting words to read when we’re being tested and uncomfortably stretched? What about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh?”; without it, we would have missed out on the heartbeat of tenderness resonating through many of his letters!
• So trust Him and never push away the instrument He is using, or you will miss the result of His work in your life.
Strange and difficult indeed
we may find it,
But the blessing that we need
is behind it.
The school of suffering graduates exceptional scholars.
–Boy, I really needed to hear this today.
