The Unending Trial

So many on my prayer list are suffering with physical pain. Prayers for miraculous healing. Prayers to see them through to the other side. For some, relief comes in a day. For others getting better takes longer. And for still others, they seem to live in some kind of pain day after day without any relief in sight. It takes the wind out of their sails. If they don’t go through the “normal” routines of life:  (to work, to a family meal and then some TV or off to a child’s school event - before bed) … they must wonder, “Who am I now?” What if getting through it doesn’t mean healing the way I define it? But something else…

When you live a “normal” life of work and family, many of us squeeze in a 5-minute devotional into the schedule. Then it’s on to what has to be done. Their purpose in life. But when your life is filled with some kind of pain, all you can think about is pain. Your prayers are all tears. And frustration. Questions.

That’s when you need to go deeper than most, to know God in a bigger way. You need to turn up the worship music because you can’t find the words to praise Him on your own. You need to meditate on scripture and say over and over the words of promise that you hang all hope upon. And you write down every praying thought and phrase and scream and cry and question and fear… until you have exhausted the topic altogether and you can think of nothing more to pray. Because once you are freed from all that, you can hear God and sense His tender touch.  Today’s agenda - get deep into God like no one else.  Just abide in Him and with Him… at a level no one else will discover while in their busy little “normal” world.

James 4:8

And when you draw close to God, God will draw close to you…

Deut. 4:29

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

God will show up for you. May He grant respite as you spend time with Him. May He grant some kind of peace and acceptance in your new normal. May you be blessed with indescribable courage and strength while you feel weak. May you sense His power and realize it is sufficient for the day. Will you abide at His request? Comfort and rest are waiting for you there…