'A
nd now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.' From Philippians NLT
For quite a while I had been thinking about asking my blogging friend, Sandy, to guest post on my blog. Today when I read her post, I KNEW that I wanted to post this for you, dear reader.
How blessed we are when we find a true, loyal, loving, devoted friend. I have found that in Sandy. While I have never laid eyes on her, I couldn't love her more if we were blood sisters. In fact, the other day she said as much in one of her comments to me. "We are blood sisters--His blood."
You can access Sandy's blog here but for now enjoy her inspired writing right below.
Faith While Suffering
When someone speaks of faith, what does it
mean to you? How do you define faith?
Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen.
-Hebrews 11:1
NKJV
Now faith is being sure of what we hope
for and certain of what we do not see.
NIV
There are all sorts of reasons why we are in
need of faith. Sometimes it's for a financial
breakthrough, or for a special word from the
Lord, or for a situation to change, for some
type of direction. Of course we must have faith
to receive our eternal salvation.
But what about suffering in these physical
bodies? What about faith to be healed or
delivered? What do we do when we feel we
have done all we can do?
To me, having faith means I take God at His
word, then go on.The Bible is His word, His truth.
I take it as His personal word to and for me, then I
"do the next thing", as dear Elisabeth Elliot said,
after the death of her martyred husband, Jim.
So, what must Christians do when suffering comes
and lingers long? When there seems to be no way,
day in and day out, but suffering? When these
hard circumstances seem not to change no matter
how long and hard we storm heaven's gates?
We realize God is, indeed, with us right there in
the middle of our suffering. He is among us.
So, we set our battle-worn hearts and minds to
carry on
keep going
move ahead
fix our eyes on Him
not look back
to persevere
press in
refuse to give up
encourage ourselves in Him
and "do the next thing" that needs to be done in
daily living.
And in His good and perfect timing, if we faint not,
we will see His hand in all these circumstances in life.
The hardest thing we go through in this life, in my opinion,
is seeing our loved ones suffer with sickness and pain.
That is even harder than experiencing it in our own
bodies and minds. When a child, spouse, parent, sibling,
or friend is bound up with a physical or mental infirmity
we suffer right along with them.
Yet He has promised never to leave us or forsake us.
He has promised to love us with an everlasting love.
He has promised that all things work together for our
good.
He has promised that joy comes in the morning.
Whatever you may be going through...take hold of
His hand. He loves you. He will see you through.
The Lord himself goes before you and will be
with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
-Deuteronomy 31:8
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
-Psalm 34:17
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean
not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him and he will
make your paths straight.
-Proverbs 3:5-6
You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind
is steadfast, because he trusts in you.
Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord,
is the Rock eternal.
-Isaiah 26:3-4
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of
Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength...."
-Isaiah 30:15
From a caring heart, with love, to you and yours,
Sandy
Thank you, Sandy, for a beautiful post. The rose and scripture above represent your friendship to me. Thank you from my heart.
