Standing Alone In Affliction

For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though a person may be weighed down by misery. Ecclesiastes 8:6 

  

  Some of my loneliest times have been when my illnesses had me at my worst. Though friends and family have supported and comforted me, suffering is something you do alone. It is just you and God when life is boiled down to its bare essentials. No one can suffer for you or take your suffering from you. 

  

A servant of God must stand so very much alone that he never realizes he is alone. In the early stages of the Christian life, disappointments will come— people who used to be lights will flicker out, and those who used to stand with us will turn away. We have to get so used to it that we will not even realize we are standing alone. ---Oswald Chambers 

  

  What makes suffering bearable when everyone else seems so distant and you feel isolated in your pain is the fact that God stands beside you. Everyone else seems a million miles away, yet God is in your corner no matter how hard the fight or how much pain afflicts you. 

  Lonely indeed would be our misery if it were not for God. You can do without anyone else if God stands with you. Every Christian in prison, every brother and sister alone in a hospital room, every believer alone anywhere in the world can tell you it makes all the difference having God with them no matter how tough the painful circumstances. 

  For every parent who has lost a child, and every child a parent, for those enduring the pain of divorce, no one need explain loneliness to them. Pain and suffering introduces us to loneliness, and only with God can we endure it.  

  Those standing alone in affliction can say that God is good. Not because of circumstances, but because our great Maker knows our pain and need and is there to meet us in our aloneness. When circumstances are overwhelming and pain weighs us down to the ground we can look up and experience the grace and peace of God as we fasten our eyes upon Him. More than this, we can become sensitive to His Presence, and that Presence is most powerful when our need is greatest. 

  Prayer: Dear Lord, the weight of our suffering can be too much to bear, and our loneliness seems overwhelming at such times. Yet You never fail us, never leave us, never forsake us. Thank You Lord for always being there. Amen. 

  

Worry Saps Our Strength And Steals Our Hope

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:25-34 

  

  Worry can become a terrible habit. I have struggled with it throughout my life. One thing that has helped me is to focus upon the promises of God. Strengthening our faith by reading and hearing the word of God can lessen our worry, reducing fear and building our faith. 

  Worry taxes our resources. It can leave us fatigued and exhausted, and our mental energies drained as our focus is fixed upon fearful outcomes and dreadful ideas. 

  

Worry often gives a small thing a great shadow. –Swedish proverb 

  

  When instead of thinking positively, believing the best, we allow ourselves to be drawn like steel toward a magnet into negativity, the light within us gives way to shadowy thoughts. Nothing drives out courage quicker than worry. Worry leads to fear, and fear destroys our courage. 

  The challenge for every Christian is to take our eyes off of our fears and doubts. We must drive away our worry and instead place our focus where it belongs--upon Jesus! The Lord is Sovereign. No matter what fears and worries assail us, we have a God greater than our worry, more powerful than our doubts. He is able to drive away all of our fears. 

  When you are ill, fighting disease, or living with disability, you will have ample opportunity to worry. Indeed, it will feel like worrying is the natural thing to do. It takes effort and is not easy to stop worrying. The antidote to worry is focusing upon God. Remember that you have an awesome God, an almighty Lord, a delivering Savior who will see you through all of your troubles and fears, taking you beyond your doubts and every worrisome thought that assails you. 

  Prayer: Dear Lord, worrying can seem as natural as breathing to us. We need strength and power beyond our doubts and fears. Enable us to move beyond our worries to trust You no matter what our circumstances may be or however large worry looms in our mind. Thank You Lord! Amen. 

  

Battlefield Of Love

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.  

  

  As a Christian who has lived on this earth more than 54 years I find that I sometimes fail to live by the precepts of love. Patience is a big problem for me, being easily angered is another, and letting go of wrongs takes quite an effort. How wonderful it would be to live in a constant state of Christian love toward others. 

  I wish it was easy to overlook the faults of others when they wrong me, treat me with disdain, or judge me in some fashion. I would like to say my constant reaction is to always respond with Christian love. Pat Benatar says in one of her songs: Love is a battlefield. 

  Yet it should not be, especially for the Christian. We live in a very flawed world and we ourselves struggle with a flesh-and-blood body that affects our emotions and thoughts. However, we are not without help and hope. 

  We look at Jesus and consider the way He overcame insults and slander thrown at Him. We contemplate how He could respond with love and compassion when He was accused of horrible things. He was spat upon, beaten, and ridiculed. Jesus is our our example for responding toward unkindness and even hatred in others. Jesus is the ideal of what we must aspire to become. Because He lived a godly and loving life regardless of the horrible actions of others, so can we. 

  We who live with bodily afflictions and emotional turmoil due to our many ailments are particularly challenged when it comes to our attitude and reactions toward those around us. Our emotional responses can become clouded and blurred. They are often informed by our pain and suffering rather than our Christian love and understanding. Yet we can ask for help.

  Leaning upon the Lord, calling upon the Holy Spirit, and responding to the powerful teaching of scripture, we can find our way through our emotional turmoil into the peace and grace of Jesus Christ. When we recall how patient our Lord has been with us, and how much He loves us despite our many failings, we can better forgive and love those around us who fail us in many ways. 

  While love can feel like a battlefield, in truth love is a choice to obediently follow a Lord who loves us and forgives us daily. We can do likewise as we call upon Jesus to fill us with His love and compassion. 

  Prayer: Dear Lord, forgive us for failing at love. Empower us to be more like You, especially when it comes to loving others. Amen

Why Are We Here And Who Put Us Here?

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 

  

  Metaphysics is usually defined as the philosophical study of knowing and being. Philosophers have debated the deep questions of life for centuries. Yet the greatest questions involve knowing: Why are we here? Who created the world? Who created us? To know essentially: Why do we exist? 

  It is fundamental to know who we are, why we are here, and what our purpose in life might be. Without the Bible and without God there is left a vacuum that false religions, cults, and shysters of all types have tried to take advantage of for centuries. 

  We are built with an innate need for relevance. While the world spins around us we desire to know what it all means. And when afflictions, disease, and hardships of all kinds come against us we can sometimes wonder if there is any meaning to life at all. 

  Christians find meaning in the Person of Jesus Christ. He too lived on this difficult earth with its pain, sorrows, and multiple miseries. Yet He lived with purpose and meaning. Jesus lived for others. He sacrificed His precious time, energy, and resources on behalf of others. He cared for the sick, fed the hungry, and wept along with those who mourned. Of course He did much more than this, He died on the cross for a sin sick world.  

  Day to day our life can seem meaningless. Especially for those of us who are continuously fighting one battle after another. Yet like Jesus, we can know there is meaning to our life because we are doing the will of God by carrying on in faith. Taking one step after another, rolling the wheelchair forward, or simply looking up to God from our bed of sickness--being faithful in the place God has put us is no small thing. To be faithful in affliction gives meaning to our difficult lives. Living in a world with a loving Savior reveals to the world that we live with a purpose, to serve the One who made us and called us to become His children. We are not alone. There is a Lord who made us and who loves us and lives within us. That is enough reason and meaning for anyone. 

   

Prayer: Dear Lord, our life sometimes feels meaningless, yet You give us a purpose. Help us never to despair, but to always hope as we remember You came to this world to save us and give meaning to our existence. Amen.