HARD TIMES --- DARK DAYS

 

The phone calls....emails.....text messages came rolling in this week. One after another until they began to stack up.
"Can you please pray for me!" I am facing  (insert condition, circumstance, situation) and I don't know what to do. There were calls for healing....calls for restoration of family issues...calls for fear of returning to their addiction.....calls to simply say, "I have no faith anymore that God even cares." Then there was one that simply said, "I don't know what to do...I don't know where to turn."

Sometimes I think that is my problem....I don't know what to do. Such thoughts as those come from the foolishness of my own mind, thinking that I could actually somehow do anything to alleviate their pain and suffering.
Maybe it isn't about what I can do, as much as it is about who am I going to turn to.
Who am I going to cry out to when the pain gets to bad?
Who do I turn to when hope runs dry,  trusting that He will see methrough these dark times?
I think all of us are born with a unrealistic view of who God is and what He will do. He is not the "GREAT FIXER" of my messed up life. Although capable of making all problems disappear, He is more prone to guide me through the darkness. Why would He choose this route? So that I may grow in Him.

Believe you me, taking that journey doesn't lessen the pain, and I still want to cut and run, but the truth is..........I learn, see, and understand better when I do face my pain and suffering. I guess the greatest lesson is that I see the love of the Father, and exactly how far He will go to reveal Himself. I learn that He is faithful, even when I am not.

One of the verses that I turn too when life seems to be a coming at me wave after wave, beating and bashing me emotionally, physically and spiritually, is found in II Corinthians 4:7-10

We now have this light (the Holy Spirit living inside us) shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but now driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
We find the kicker in Verse 16-18......

That is why we never give up, though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are SMALL and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Whatever situation you may be facing today...you have not been abandoned.
You are not alone....
Turn to God.
There is nobody else who will help you like He will.

God on you...
mbb