Please pray for the Mitchell family, Colleen is a moderator at 4Real. Her not yet 4 month old son, Bryce, died in his sleep yesterday.
"Our Mother's Garden of Sorrows" Elizabeth Foss
We live and so we suffer.
We live as Christians and so we suffer with Christ.
What does this mean, realistically, in our daily lives?
What is it to suffer as a Christian?
On the golden days, the happy days when life sparkles sunshine and the air smells like roses, we know that God is there.
We give him a smile and a wink and we go about our merry way, conscious of our blessings.
But what about those days when it rains?
Those days when it pours buckets of unrelenting hard, driving, bullets of raindrops on a cold and stony ground?
Where are the sweet-smelling blossoms; from where will blow the warm breezes?
We cry out to God and we wonder, where is He?
Has He forsaken us?
In this damp, cold, barren garden, we wonder, perhaps, if there is a God at all.
We suffer and we agonize over the seeming silence of God.
But He’s there.
He has allowed us to fall upon our knees in agony and to call His name again and again.
He is there and He is still the good God. He tests our faith .
He allows us to scream “Why?” and to question His judgment, His authority, His compassion.
He wants us to beg Him for mercy.
Why?
Because He wants us to acknowledge that He is God and that we are entirely dependent upon Him.
That is faith.
God want us to have the kind of faith that looks at Him in suffering and says,
“I still believe.
I am nothing without you and I need you desperately.”
That is teeth-gritting faith.
Go here to read more.....
I read about the recent losses on the board this morning. I'm not a member there but my thoughts and prayers are with them.
ReplyDeleteSending prayers their way. I can't even imagine the pain at the loss of a child. *cries*
ReplyDeletemy condolences to the bereaved family.. losing a member in the family was really painful and so hard.. be strong..
ReplyDelete