Friends, I come to you tonight with a little bit of a heavy spirit, I've had a few things today that I have heard of that have cause me to tremble. Things that make my soul a bit sorrowful...and I'm finding myself ever more thankful for the hands of the Father that hold this whole world in His hands. It's His pain on the cross that give me hope. He went through every imaginable emotional, and physical pain that any of us could dare to imagine, and He did it with poise, with dignity and He did it with love in His heart for us, and in complete obedience to His Father.
I stand in awe of Him like never before. There is such pain in the world today and I want to be encouraged. So where do I turn when I want to be encouraged, the Word of God.
He tells me..Not to be afraid, because He has overcome the word...(John 14:27)
He tells me...Fear not, It is I, I am here...(Isaiah 41:10)
He tells me.. though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we need not fear any evil..(Psalms 23)
He tells me...Though the earth give way, and the oceans quake with their surging, and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, there is streams who makes glad the city God, God is with her at the break of day, and she will not fall. (Psalm 46)
He tells me..Come to me, you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. (Matt. 11:28)
He tells me...I am your strong tower, your shelter when your weak (Psalm 61:3)
He tells me...Do not be afraid, it is I...and the seas were calm. (Peter walking on water)
He tells me....Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matt. 5: 3)
He tells me...Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted..(Matthew 5:5)
And Friends, I will be honest with you, it was those last two verses that always gave me trouble, I thought, how could He call me blessed as I mourn? How could He call me blessed and I'm down and out in spirit? How could He call me blessed as my world seems to be falling apart?
Because of this: When the world is the darkest, God's light can be seen the brightest. Why? Because when we are in pain...we run to Him. Not because He's some evil dictator who enjoys us crawling to Him, but because He holds the keys to our peace. He knows that in Him, no pain can touch us. It why you can see people with terminal diseases being joyful and praising the name of the Lord. Here is why you can take this quite literally...when Christ died, He died for our sins. But from the 6th to the 9th hours, there was complete darkness. Complete and utter darkness in the world and in that moment, those standing around the cross had the breath taken away, and they said..."surely...this must have been the son of God..."
Others can say that of us as we face darkness. As we experience trials. I was so encouraged by this, because Christ went through the ultimate darkness but my friends, He was more than held, He was saved my His Father. He was risen to life in a complete and whole way and He offers us just such eternal joy as well...
The difficult part is that on this side of heaven, there is pain, but that is why we have the Lord here on earth with us as His Holy Spirit and why we have His most precious words written in His book of love to us. Open it. Open up your heart to the possibility of joy...and watch as He unfolds His great great love for you. Watch as he picks you up, picks your child up, picks your sick Mother up and holds them with such tender care and love. The pain we feel, is understood by our most loving and holy Father. He is not an unreachable God. He is your gentle Father who longs to speak words of encouragement to your heart.
"He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot- come, let us rejoice in Him." Psalm 66:5
My heart goes out to all of you who have pain in your heart tonight, and I pray for His peace that which surpasses all, to fill your hearts and minds tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment