I know it's late and I probably should be in bed but my head is still thinking and my heart is feeling heavy and prayerful for some of my friends and family and the trials God has seen fit to take them through. Bryan's brother-in-law has been without a full time job for several months and just yesterday Bryan's dad was laid off along with 14 other men he worked with.
A family very dear to me will be sitting in a hospital tomorrow morning waiting as their husband/dad is having his heart operated on (and he doesn't know Christ).
A family in my brother and sister's church just received word this week that the child they were adopting from Uganda (and had already been to visit...staying with him for one month) was not going to be able to be their son after all.
I read the following quote today by Mark Driscoll and it seemed very timely:
"There is no suffering, there is no affliction, there is no weeping, mourning, shedding of tears, or dark days for the child of God that is pointless, purposeless, and without merit."
Before the foundations of the world were spoken into being the story of our lives was planned out by God, sealed by the blood of Christ, empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit and guaranteed with an ending more indescribable than we could ever imagine. I Corinthians 2:9 puts it this way: " Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him."
The problem is that we all are in the middle of our story right now.... and the only thing we see is the page in front of us and, for some, it is not at all what we expected it to be. In times like this (and truly everyday) we must skip to the end...it is already written for us to read!!!
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
A family very dear to me will be sitting in a hospital tomorrow morning waiting as their husband/dad is having his heart operated on (and he doesn't know Christ).
A family in my brother and sister's church just received word this week that the child they were adopting from Uganda (and had already been to visit...staying with him for one month) was not going to be able to be their son after all.
I read the following quote today by Mark Driscoll and it seemed very timely:
"There is no suffering, there is no affliction, there is no weeping, mourning, shedding of tears, or dark days for the child of God that is pointless, purposeless, and without merit."
Before the foundations of the world were spoken into being the story of our lives was planned out by God, sealed by the blood of Christ, empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit and guaranteed with an ending more indescribable than we could ever imagine. I Corinthians 2:9 puts it this way: " Things which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him."
The problem is that we all are in the middle of our story right now.... and the only thing we see is the page in front of us and, for some, it is not at all what we expected it to be. In times like this (and truly everyday) we must skip to the end...it is already written for us to read!!!
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Comments
For His glory,
Brook