Many of you may find yourselves embroiled in a great struggle or battle....feeling attacked by the enemy and overwhelmed too...Well, my friends, I have been there and I offer today's blog as a channel of hope for you in the midst of this difficult season of life....
Tests come to us in many forms, but the hardship we experience is unmistakable....We're often left wondering and crying out before God as to why in the world He would allow such happenings in the first place....but let's think for a moment about the folks who have inspired and encouraged us as they have overcome great hardship and adversity in their lives.....I am reminded of people like Corrie Ten Boom; the Holocaust survivor, who through the horrible suffering and hardship which she endured, has encouraged many thousands with her writings which clearly testify to her strength, grace and all-encompassing faith in God.
Another awe-inspiring figure, is Mr. Horatio Spafford, the hymn writer, who wrote the beloved hymn "It is Well with My Soul" as a result of having lost a son (4 yrs. old) to scarlet fever, losing his home to a fire, losing 4 of his daughters (ages 11, 9, 5 and 2) at sea; when the ship they were sailing on while on vacation, was struck by an iron sailing vessel and subsequently sunk....after losing his daughters, Spafford and his wife had 3 more children only to lose another son (4 yrs. old) to pneumonia....
Knowing their stories, I've often pondered on the lives of both Corrie Ten Boom and Horatio Spafford....marveling at their will to survive such tragedies and wondering HOW they did so....but then, I think back through the recent history of my own life....admittedly, not wrought with nearly as many trials and hardships, but certainly not without......I think back over all of the financial distress my husband and I have gone through, the marital/familial trials we've had to overcome, caring for and then losing both of my parents to cancer, etc......yes, some of our trials were self-inflicted, while some were beyond our control, most have been a combination of those 2 things....nevertheless, the lesson's we learned in the midst of them, have helped me better understand how folks like Ms. Ten Boom and Mr. Spafford kept going...kept living....for the glory of God...."How???" you might ask....they invited Him into the midst of the test with them....I imagine they may have wondered "WHY" at some point (we sure did), but in their wondering they did not turn their back on Him....and now, as we look back over their lives in the form of history, we see that God took their test and through it, He gave them a testimony to share with the world....
This my friends, is the very same lesson God has taught my husband and I....this is the very same lesson that God wants to teach us all....
I can't encourage you enough to invite Him into the middle of your test to sustain you and see you through it.... I promise you, He will most assuredly reward you with a testimony of His faithfulness, goodness, lovingkindness and mercy that you will, in turn, be able to share with others.....not only that, but you will also be endowed with increased faith in God....because it's only when He brings us through something that we learn to believe that He can be trusted to do it again....
Even right now, like many of you, my husband and I are standing at the threshold of what looks to be a rough season approaching.....if this were perhaps 10 years or so ago, I imagine we might be fretting and worrying about what will come next for us, but because we've leaned on God through other tests and know from experience that He can be trusted....now,when one of us starts to sound fearful or full of doubt, the other of us will gently recall our favorite calming phrase...."God has brought us too far to leave us now....." and the same is true for you, my friend....the same is true for you......
