When,we feel as if we’re collapsing on the inside and crying out to God, “I cannot handle any more!” we can expect to sense a little inaudible whisper that encourages us: “You are going to make it because I am here.”
Though God may be silent for a time, He never ceases working on our behalf. When the time is right, He provides an outcome aligning with His perfect plan. Giving up before the Lord responds to your call is a grave mistake. So pray on, friends. Pray on!
..God has done so much for me, not only for what He has brought into my life, but also for what He has taken out of my life. He has protected me in so many ways. God is my strength and fortress forever. Sometimes it helps to look around. When I see how other people are going through their own struggles and in some cases far worse than mine, it helps me realize that I am still blessed and that God has given me good things in life. I have found that many times my outlook on life is often skewed when I only focus on the challenges of today, or the thing I greatly desire which I do not posses.. When I take time to “count my blessings” and remember the things that God has already done, I often find that I realize how much my life is actually filled with good things! When I remember the times when things were really hard and I remember how God intervened then..it helps me remember to trust Him for the challenges of today. I know that even though life is uncertain, God is sure and I can count on Him to have good plans and purposes (even when I don’t understand them!) and to be there through all the changing scenes of life .
"Thank you God for knowing my future in advance so that you have a passage or a verse or chapter waiting for me as I start my day. I needed this today and when I seen the title and read the chapter, It reminds me of Gods care for me, This also keeps me coming back each day to read and study out what God has in store for me. If I missed a day I miss out on God speaking directly to me through His word. Guide me in all that I do, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be aligned with yours oh my Lord and my redeemer. Let me mediate on your might and your strength even when I encounter situations beyond me today. Cover me under your arms and keep me in your refuge ..Amen!"
If your going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.”
Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world...
Soon as you Father finished praying over me..God spoke Mark 8:24 , I never expected to live 12 years with MS. Jesus didn't heal the blind man right away ,like Jesus other healings..first the blind man couldn't see anything, then things got blurry ," men walking around like trees..Then everything was clear, Jesus healing, doesn't necessary mean to receive complete physical healing through those times of HIM carrying us, but developing spiritually with each salve of his precious tough...
Soon as Bishop Torney, prayed over me..a nurse came to give me my MS injection and made mistake by giving me the wrong injection, which would have cost my life. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.Know weapon form against me shall prosper..-Isaiah 54:17
Mark 8 verse 24 shows us that not all Jesus's healings are right away, Jesus says something shocking: “Do you see anything?” This is a question you do not expect Jesus to ask. We expect him to make an authoritative statement that the man has in fact been healed. Instead, Jesus asks the man, “Do you see?”-as if to say, “Did the miracle work?”
This is strange for a number of reasons. First of all, Jesus usually knows when something works, and it usually works! Miracles are not really a problem for Jesus. As we read this question, we almost wonder if Jesus was going through a bit of a slump in his miracle working. Maybe He had tried one a few days before in front of a lot of people, and it didn’t go so well. Now, He is a little bit nervous. He doubts his abilities. So, instead of taking a chance in front of a crowd of people, he leads the man out of the city, tells the man that He will try, and does it with a bit of a “here goes nothing” mentality. And after he tries, He sheepishly says, “Do you see anything?”
What is even stranger than Jesus’ question is the response of the blind man. Verse 24 tells us that the man says, “I see men, for I see . . . .”Let’s stop right there. The blind man who was brought to Jesus can now see. He says twice that he can see. “I see men.” “I see.” Obviously, something miraculous just happened. Jesus touched the man and he was healed. Or was he? The man continues and says, “I see men, like trees, walking around.” Either this man has found himself in a village surrounded by very large men with extra extremities, who look like trees, or perhaps somehow the man is seeing, but he is not seeing clearly. At the end of verse 24, we find a man that has been healed-sort of. His sight is restored-partially. He can see-but not clearly.
So, Jesus goes at it again. Verse 25 tells us that Jesus looked at the man intently,” Then again He laid His hands on his eyes . . . .”At the end of the verse, it says, “and he began to see everything clearly.” The second work of Jesus seemed to fully heal the man. Jesus, aware that the man had been healed, him not to go back to the village and not to tell anyone what happened. After two attempts, the man finally sees clearly and went away with clear instruction.
As I mention earlier,I didn't expect to live with MS for 12 years...or maybe you with cancer for so long. Does that mean we see Jesus any clearer as we go through our trails. What we go through, our times of troubles, pain and tribulations becomes something more than healing. There is a lesson through our healing...each step we see Jesus more clearly, knowing HE carries us with each system, weakness, pain, etc..
"Does He ever find me pondering the time when I cared only for Him? Is that where I am now, or have I chosen man’s wisdom over true love for Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no thought for where He might lead me? Or am I watching to see how much respect I get as I measure how much service I should give Him? "
"Father, I always need You. Forgive me for thinking I am sufficient in myself. Help me to follow You and Your ways whether life is easy or difficult. Thank You for caring for me. " Amen!
There are times and moments in our lives that we feel our prayers go unanswered. There are situations we feel we need our prayers to be answered and we want solutions at our demand. But are we ready for the answers that God has prepared? Most of us will pray, and most of the time, there aren’t any audible or tangible answers that come to us in the form of some sort of revelation.
In Matthew 26, even for Jesus, there are three moments of utter silence. It even says that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (v.38). Jesus was desperate for God’s intervention from what was about to come. But there is absolutely no answer to his cry.
There are many of us who have experienced such a silence, and let me tell you that it is not a very encouraging experience. It is painful and a struggle to get through those moments and we can often feel like we are left in the dust by God. We may read this passage thinking that the Father may be cruel and a masochist for letting his Son die in the way he did after this event – but there is something else to this passage that we see through Jesus’ words and actions. The Father’s silence was not because he was not listening or had no answer, but rather because God was working to save us – even in that very moment.
I confess...I find myself in a wilderness, that the Lord ask total dependence on him to take down my mountain of medical bills that come due the beginning of every month. Just like the Israelites, the Lord took them into the wilderness to have total dependence on food and clothing and all their needs. ( Exodus ch. 16 ). At the beginning of every month, I'm looking for that mustard seed to move that mountain ( Matthew 17:14–20). The Lord provided manna in the morning and quail at night, and some of the Israelites still kept some for the next day, just in case..not trusting the Lord's daily provision (Exodus 16: 12-13).
When the Lord asks me to read the book of Job...I know, he is preparing me for something very hard for me to go through. The book of Job, arguably, could be one of the first books written for the Bible, It starts with God and the devil having a narrative about Job, God's faithful and honorable servant. Strangely.. the devil want to torque Job, to see if he would stay faithful to God during this time of suffering. So..God says go ahead, but don't torque him until death. Job, was obviously a victim, a chess piece in a game of chess. He lost his children, livestock, workers, and was inflicted with disease and boils. Job's wife and friends on top of everything else tormented him with "What did he possible do to make God put him through all this suffering."..his own wife wanted him to curse God and die. When I came across Job chapter 42 verse 5.."My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." God revealed to me during all this time Job in his subconscious was trying to reason the terrible things that came upon him and his children.."Maybe my children did something bad against God or this or that. It wasn't until verse 5 that Job saw God in the spirit, God is God...We could be good in our own eyes and others, but this doesn't make us see God as God. Building up award and aptitudes doesn't give you a relationship with God. For me Job, finally got it..he was saying, "I admit I once lived by hearsay of you God..I woke up, and now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry, forgive me God.
It's then I have to remember, That it's in the valleys I grow. If I always stayed on the mountain top And never experienced pain, I would never appreciate God's love And would be living in vain. I have so much to learn And my growth is very slow, Sometimes I need the mountain tops, But it's in the valleys I grow. I do not always understand Why things happen as they do, But I am very sure of one thing. My Lord will see me through. My little valleys are nothing When I picture Christ on the cross He went through the valley of death; His victory was Satan's loss. Forgive me Lord, for complaining When I'm feeling so very low, Just give me a gentle reminder That it's in the valleys I grow. Continue to strengthen me, Lord And use my life each day To share your love with others And help them find their way. Thank you for valleys, Lord For this one thing I know The mountain tops are glorious But it's in the valleys I grow.
God had lead me to 2 Samuel 4 verse 4..Mephibosheth, means "Son of Shame." And he had to learn how to live without his legs. They were still there but they did nothing. He had to learn to sit again. He had to learn to be carried by others. He had to learn to be cared for by others. And he always had to pay special attention to his feet, they quickly developed sores and then they took a long time to heal because they had poor circulation due to lack of exercise. His nurse continued to care for him but living in secret. The story is about Jonathan son of Saul would had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about the death of Saul and Jonathan coming from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth
This week was the worst for me...I felt the pain of the woman who for twelve years had been afflicted with hemorrhaging. She had spent every penny she had on doctors but not one had been able to help her.Can you see how isolated she must felt being disease.Mentally she must have been attacked so bad to give up on herself. Everyday dealing with chronic pain.Today someone saw my pain, and instead of avoiding it she spoke a word from the Lord.Tears came pour down, because like the women with the issue with blood,I felt JESUS.This women had came to the end of herself, she didn't care she believed that a touch would cure her, and it did...same with me!
When we can’t help ourselves and call for help, when we don’t like where we are and want out, when we don’t like who we are and want a change, we use primal language, and this language becomes the root language of prayer.” Prayer begins in trouble, and it continues because we’re always in trouble at some level. It requires no special preparation, no precise vocabulary, no appropriate posture. It springs from us in the face of necessity and, in time, becomes our habitual response to every issue—good and bad—we face in this life (Phil. 4:6).
When I wake up every morning in pain, and can't bare to continue... I go to Matthew 27:27-31. Jesus endured a kind of pain and suffering on the cross we can't begin to fathom. No depiction of what He endured can truly do justice to His experience. And as Easter comes upon us we forget the details of Christ suffering... to place ourselves on that cross, just to feel His pain. And that's the same with friends and love ones around us, we can't expect them to understand our invisible illness, only the one who bared it all on the cross can understand our pain.So when I wake up every morning, I know Jesus carries me every step of the way, then I can go on...
The other day, I was in a very bad way, in need of help again...I called for help at the same time calling on “Jesus” name. Floyd my angel, would rescue me in my time of distress, later he told me my voice was slowly fading away with “Jesus” on my breath. My testimony has been this fight for 13 years with MS progressing to the point this last year and a half haven been in and out of the hospitals and nursing homes for rehab, from being paralyzed, a stroke, blood clots in my legs and the chronic pain being monitored each day by the nurses afraid of me stroking out or having an brain aneurysm. That trouble we dreaded so much, of which we say, “I am sure it will crush me,” it would have crushed me if I had been left to myself; but when it came, we were strangely upheld, and kept so calm and placid that we did not know ourselves. When you saw your husband die, and those little children were all around you, and you knew that you were a widow, how was it that then you were still so trustful? Or you, dear husband, when you saw your wife at last expire, and the light of your home was quenched, how was it that you still said and meant it, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord?” Why, it was because the Lord had made you one of his hidden ones! He said, “Come home, dear child, come and rest with me”; and he shut you away from all the trial, and enabled you to find peace in him. The Lord had place in my spirit, remembering that, when Athaliah sought to kill all the royal seed, Jehoiada the priest took Joash, who was then a child, and hid him for six years in the house of the Lord, and there he was safe. So God takes each one of his children, and makes a Joash of us, and preserves us from the assault of the enemy so that we cannot be destroyed. -2 Kings 11 (NKJV)
After going through this episode....what was running through my mind was, "Am I getting Covid-19 again. " Nothing stirs a man more than when his children are assailed; the most quiet and inoffensive individual grows angry if his little one is touched, the blood rushes to his cheeks, and all his manhood is aroused to defend his child. That is what the Lord did for me when the pain felt like a sag hammer pounding on my back, and Floyd came in my Angel to rescue me, as my voice was fading with "Jesus " on my lips...
What I notice, the man that received his sight, told Jesus the truth about not fully receiving all his sight...."things got blurry ," men walking around like trees. "Lord help me to receive all that you have for me, and not give up on your timing and full deliverances either in this life or in eternity ." Amen!
I remember seeing Pastor William Carrol attending Time Square Church in the 90's, but never knew he was homeless. We would always stand in the back, most of the time I would see him and others near the Rotunda. I was shock to see him years later early 2000's preaching in the pulpit, preaching a powerful message "God Is! " The reason I remember, because I went through my collection of Pastor's sermons I would buy back then after the services in the Rotunda. Pastor William Carrol would start speaking in a soft tone, as I listen again to the CD, speaking on the importance of having a healthy view of God, one that is based not on our feelings or opinion but on the truth of His Word. And you would hear the urgency in his voice as the passion ramped up "God Is! " Pastor William told it like it is...Sooner or later, it's going to happen to you. Someday, calamity will come crashing into your life. Sometimes there is a forewarning; sometimes it just explodes under your feet. But we all must take our turn at it. Life can go from zero to panic attack in seconds, wrenching from your grasp anything resembling normal. The question is, in that moment, what will you do? His voice would escalate into a power you would hear from speakers like Martin Luther King Jr. Then he broke the pulpit! WOW!
It a years today, since I got COVID-19 and I was dying, now I suffer the aftermath of an enlarge heart with water around with water gain. Having MS an autoimmune disease that weakened all my muscles and nearly killed me, I realized that being able to breathe was a gift. For more than a week, a machine had to pump air into my lungs every few seconds, which was a painful part of this treatment. I made a miraculous recovery, and today it reminds me not to complain about life’s challenges. “I’ll just take a deep breath,” I say, “Thank You God I can breath.” How easy it is to focus on things we need or want, and forget that sometimes the smallest things in life can be the greatest miracles. In Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 37:1–14), God showed the prophet that only He could give life to dry bones. Even after tendons, flesh, and skin had appeared, “there was no breath in them” (verse 8). It was only when God gave them breath that they could live again (verse 10). This vision illustrated God’s promise to restore Israel from devastation. It also reminds me that anything I have, big or small, is useless unless God gives me breath. Amen!
I was just praying with Jimmy, his words précised me to the core. Tears kept pouring down from me, the sadness and gloom that can grip us when real life happens is not that easily dismissed. Feelings of hopelessness and despair are real, and sometimes professional attention is needed. I turn to read Psalm 88 which does offer something instructive and hopeful. And so, with raw honesty, he poured out his heart to God. “I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death” (verse. 3). “You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths” (verse. 6). “Darkness is my closest friend” (verse. 18). We hear, feel, and perhaps identify with the psalmist’s pain. Yet, that’s not all. His lament is laced with hope. “Lord, you are the God who saves me; day and night I cry out to you. May my prayer come before you; turn your ear to my cry” (Palms. 1–2; see also. 9, 13). Heavy things do come and practical steps such as counsel and medical care may be needed. But we can never abandon hope in God.
It seems that suffering can come through just a phone call, a sentence .... I have been thinking about Jesus at Gethsemane, they say at that point of disappear Jesus felt 39 different emotions. Who hasn’t found ourselves in a situation where the inevitable seems impossible? Where the unavoidable seems unimaginable? Who hasn’t said to God, in so many words, “Remove this cup”? In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus utters his agonizing prayer, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”-Mark 14:36
We want to escape from our life, which suddenly feels like an oncoming train about to run us down. It is the shock we feel when we receive a frightening diagnosis from our physician. When we are laid off from a job. When a friend dies. When a relationship ends. We say to ourselves, “This cannot be happening.”
When my brother was first diagnosed with colon cancer that would take his life, and when I heard that the treatments would only lengthen his life by a few months, I couldn’t believe it. “No, no, no,” I thought, this is not the way it is supposed to be. Everyone, if they live long enough, will one day know this feeling. Recently when a dear friend discovered that he had an inoperable cancer, and had only one year to live, he said he felt lost. “I don’t even know where to begin,” he told me.
Perhaps you are stuck in a miserable job with no prospects of relief. Or you are caring for someone living with a chronic illness, and you wonder how much longer you can go on. Or you receive a diagnosis of a minor medical problem that will mean a change in the way you live. In each of these cases you want to say, “Remove this cup.” And, again, exacerbating the situation is a fear that can sap our ability to make good decisions. Panic can so master you that you can barely think, let alone pray.
August 2019, I had a stroke do to my MS condition. Someone had to feed me, until I decided to relearn how to feed myself. Lifting the special spoon to my mouth from my arm splint the first time, I felt humiliated as I smeared food on my clothes. But I pressed on. I said , “My secret is learning to lean on Jesus and say, ‘Oh God, help me with this!’ ” Today I'm managing a spoon very well.
We all face different challenges throughout our days; and we all can look to Jesus moment by moment for help, strength, and peace. He will help us to hold back from snapping at our loved ones; He will give us the courage to do the next hard thing. Look to Him and find contentment.
When troubles assail us, we sink under the pressure. Right now, someone reading these words is sinking under the awful pressure of a situation that seems to be unsolvable. They are on the verge of total despair, hoping for even the briefest break from their trial. They have formed one plan after another, trying to devise ways out of their trouble, but all those arrangements have failed. Now they have nothing else to think of, no workable solution. They are at the end of it all.
How upsetting it is to see a ray of hope, a bit of sunshine but then have despair once again set in. Keep in mind, David experienced the same struggles, and he was a man after God’s heart. David testified of having great trust in the Lord, yet he went through hard times too, as he describes in this psalm.
How did David arise from this pit of despair? “But I have trusted in your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5-6).
Comments
When,we feel as if we’re collapsing on the inside and crying out to God, “I cannot handle any more!” we can expect to sense a little inaudible whisper that encourages us: “You are going to make it because I am here.”
Though God may be silent for a time, He never ceases working on our behalf. When the time is right, He provides an outcome aligning with His perfect plan. Giving up before the Lord responds to your call is a grave mistake. So pray on, friends. Pray on!
"Thank you God for knowing my future in advance so that you have a passage or a verse or chapter waiting for me as I start my day. I needed this today and when I seen the title and read the chapter, It reminds me of Gods care for me, This also keeps me coming back each day to read and study out what God has in store for me. If I missed a day I miss out on God speaking directly to me through His word. Guide me in all that I do, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be aligned with yours oh my Lord and my redeemer. Let me mediate on your might and your strength even when I encounter situations beyond me today. Cover me under your arms and keep me in your refuge ..Amen!"
Beloved, God has never failed to act but in goodness and love. When all means fail—his love prevails. Hold fast to your faith. Stand fast in his Word. There is no other hope in this world...
Soon as you Father finished praying over me..God spoke Mark 8:24 , I never expected to live 12 years with MS. Jesus didn't heal the blind man right away ,like Jesus other healings..first the blind man couldn't see anything, then things got blurry ," men walking around like trees..Then everything was clear, Jesus healing, doesn't necessary mean to receive complete physical healing through those times of HIM carrying us, but developing spiritually with each salve of his precious tough...
This is strange for a number of reasons. First of all, Jesus usually knows when something works, and it usually works! Miracles are not really a problem for Jesus. As we read this question, we almost wonder if Jesus was going through a bit of a slump in his miracle working. Maybe He had tried one a few days before in front of a lot of people, and it didn’t go so well. Now, He is a little bit nervous. He doubts his abilities. So, instead of taking a chance in front of a crowd of people, he leads the man out of the city, tells the man that He will try, and does it with a bit of a “here goes nothing” mentality. And after he tries, He sheepishly says, “Do you see anything?”
What is even stranger than Jesus’ question is the response of the blind man. Verse 24 tells us that the man says, “I see men, for I see . . . .”Let’s stop right there. The blind man who was brought to Jesus can now see. He says twice that he can see. “I see men.” “I see.” Obviously, something miraculous just happened. Jesus touched the man and he was healed. Or was he? The man continues and says, “I see men, like trees, walking around.” Either this man has found himself in a village surrounded by very large men with extra extremities, who look like trees, or perhaps somehow the man is seeing, but he is not seeing clearly. At the end of verse 24, we find a man that has been healed-sort of. His sight is restored-partially. He can see-but not clearly.
So, Jesus goes at it again. Verse 25 tells us that Jesus looked at the man intently,” Then again He laid His hands on his eyes . . . .”At the end of the verse, it says, “and he began to see everything clearly.” The second work of Jesus seemed to fully heal the man. Jesus, aware that the man had been healed, him not to go back to the village and not to tell anyone what happened. After two attempts, the man finally sees clearly and went away with clear instruction.
As I mention earlier,I didn't expect to live with MS for 12 years...or maybe you with cancer for so long. Does that mean we see Jesus any clearer as we go through our trails. What we go through, our times of troubles, pain and tribulations becomes something more than healing. There is a lesson through our healing...each step we see Jesus more clearly, knowing HE carries us with each system, weakness, pain, etc..
"Does He ever find me pondering the time when I cared only for Him? Is that where I am now, or have I chosen man’s wisdom over true love for Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no thought for where He might lead me? Or am I watching to see how much respect I get as I measure how much service I should give Him? "
"Father, I always need You. Forgive me for
thinking I am sufficient in myself. Help me to
follow You and Your ways whether life is easy
or difficult. Thank You for caring for me. " Amen!
In Matthew 26, even for Jesus, there are three moments of utter silence. It even says that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death (v.38). Jesus was desperate for God’s intervention from what was about to come. But there is absolutely no answer to his cry.
There are many of us who have experienced such a silence, and let me tell you that it is not a very encouraging experience. It is painful and a struggle to get through those moments and we can often feel like we are left in the dust by God. We may read this passage thinking that the Father may be cruel and a masochist for letting his Son die in the way he did after this event – but there is something else to this passage that we see through Jesus’ words and actions. The Father’s silence was not because he was not listening or had no answer, but rather because God was working to save us – even in that very moment.
When the Lord asks me to read the book of Job...I know, he is preparing me for something very hard for me to go through. The book of Job, arguably, could be one of the first books written for the Bible, It starts with God and the devil having a narrative about Job, God's faithful and honorable servant. Strangely.. the devil want to torque Job, to see if he would stay faithful to God during this time of suffering. So..God says go ahead, but don't torque him until death. Job, was obviously a victim, a chess piece in a game of chess. He lost his children, livestock, workers, and was inflicted with disease and boils. Job's wife and friends on top of everything else tormented him with "What did he possible do to make God put him through all this suffering."..his own wife wanted him to curse God and die.
When I came across Job chapter 42 verse 5.."My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." God revealed to me during all this time Job in his subconscious was trying to reason the terrible things that came upon him and his children.."Maybe my children did something bad against God or this or that. It wasn't until verse 5 that Job saw God in the spirit, God is God...We could be good in our own eyes and others, but this doesn't make us see God as God. Building up award and aptitudes doesn't give you a relationship with God. For me Job, finally got it..he was saying, "I admit I once lived by hearsay of you God..I woke up, and now I have it all firsthand—from my own eyes and ears! I’m sorry, forgive me God.
It's then I have to remember,
That it's in the valleys I grow.
If I always stayed on the mountain top
And never experienced pain,
I would never appreciate God's love
And would be living in vain.
I have so much to learn
And my growth is very slow,
Sometimes I need the mountain tops,
But it's in the valleys I grow.
I do not always understand
Why things happen as they do,
But I am very sure of one thing.
My Lord will see me through.
My little valleys are nothing
When I picture Christ on the cross
He went through the valley of death;
His victory was Satan's loss.
Forgive me Lord, for complaining
When I'm feeling so very low,
Just give me a gentle reminder
That it's in the valleys I grow.
Continue to strengthen me, Lord
And use my life each day
To share your love with others
And help them find their way.
Thank you for valleys, Lord
For this one thing I know
The mountain tops are glorious
But it's in the valleys I grow.
Prayer begins in trouble, and it continues because we’re always in trouble at some level. It requires no special preparation, no precise vocabulary, no appropriate posture. It springs from us in the face of necessity and, in time, becomes our habitual response to every issue—good and bad—we face in this life (Phil. 4:6).
That trouble we dreaded so much, of which we say, “I am sure it will crush me,” it would have crushed me if I had been left to myself; but when it came, we were strangely upheld, and kept so calm and placid that we did not know ourselves. When you saw your husband die, and those little children were all around you, and you knew that you were a widow, how was it that then you were still so trustful? Or you, dear husband, when you saw your wife at last expire, and the light of your home was quenched, how was it that you still said and meant it, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord?” Why, it was because the Lord had made you one of his hidden ones! He said, “Come home, dear child, come and rest with me”; and he shut you away from all the trial, and enabled you to find peace in him.
The Lord had place in my spirit, remembering that, when Athaliah sought to kill all the royal seed, Jehoiada the priest took Joash, who was then a child, and hid him for six years in the house of the Lord, and there he was safe. So God takes each one of his children, and makes a Joash of us, and preserves us from the assault of the enemy so that we cannot be destroyed. -2 Kings 11 (NKJV)
I made a miraculous recovery, and today it reminds me not to complain about life’s challenges. “I’ll just take a deep breath,” I say, “Thank You God I can breath.”
How easy it is to focus on things we need or want, and forget that sometimes the smallest things in life can be the greatest miracles. In Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 37:1–14), God showed the prophet that only He could give life to dry bones. Even after tendons, flesh, and skin had appeared, “there was no breath in them” (verse 8). It was only when God gave them breath that they could live again (verse 10).
This vision illustrated God’s promise to restore Israel from devastation. It also reminds me that anything I have, big or small, is useless unless God gives me breath. Amen!
We want to escape from our life, which suddenly feels like an oncoming train about to run us down. It is the shock we feel when we receive a frightening diagnosis from our physician. When we are laid off from a job. When a friend dies. When a relationship ends. We say to ourselves, “This cannot be happening.”
When my brother was first diagnosed with colon cancer that would take his life, and when I heard that the treatments would only lengthen his life by a few months, I couldn’t believe it. “No, no, no,” I thought, this is not the way it is supposed to be. Everyone, if they live long enough, will one day know this feeling. Recently when a dear friend discovered that he had an inoperable cancer, and had only one year to live, he said he felt lost. “I don’t even know where to begin,” he told me.
Perhaps you are stuck in a miserable job with no prospects of relief. Or you are caring for someone living with a chronic illness, and you wonder how much longer you can go on. Or you receive a diagnosis of a minor medical problem that will mean a change in the way you live. In each of these cases you want to say, “Remove this cup.” And, again, exacerbating the situation is a fear that can sap our ability to make good decisions. Panic can so master you that you can barely think, let alone pray.
We all face different challenges throughout our days; and we all can look to Jesus moment by moment for help, strength, and peace. He will help us to hold back from snapping at our loved ones; He will give us the courage to do the next hard thing. Look to Him and find contentment.
How upsetting it is to see a ray of hope, a bit of sunshine but then have despair once again set in. Keep in mind, David experienced the same struggles, and he was a man after God’s heart. David testified of having great trust in the Lord, yet he went through hard times too, as he describes in this psalm.
How did David arise from this pit of despair? “But I have trusted in your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5-6).