Sonlight through smoke!
Verse for Today: Saturday, April 28, 2012
Psalms 102:3 – For my days have been consumed in smoke, and my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
Life for a child of God in this world is like a desert and a furnace because of the intense heat from the battles we are engaged in each day. The tensions and challenges are like living in a consuming smoke which blocks our way in front of us. The smoke makes breathing difficult due to lack of oxygen. Such lingering experiences of emotional heat create great distress in our souls and slowly affect our bodies and thus even our bones become weak and shaky. Our situations often lead us to disillusionment and despair when hope diminishes. We are buffeted by the enemy through the manipulation of our situations to take away our enthusiasm for the Lord. We are forced to wonder how long we should wait for help to come from the Lord. When we examine the lives of Job, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, Moses, Jeremiah and Paul, we find the depth of agony they went through as they fought the battles of life. The biographies of great saints like William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, C.T. Studd, and many other lesser known souls, tell us of such rough experiences of distress during their ministries. But all of them received the grace to go to the presence of the Lord with their petitions and found answers. Some of them found their situations changed, like that of Jacob, Joseph and Daniel, but many others only got abundance of grace to face their situations. We meet such lives of tears, intimidation, injustice and persecution whose stories crowd the columns of Church History. They all cried to the Lord and He answered each of them differently. Some got positive answers quickly, but others got a closer walk with the Lord, but they all walked the edges of His ways. They learnt to keep crying to the Lord and He kept them close to Himself. He blessed them with His holy presence and poured His peace into their hearts and lives. They all learned that it was more important for them to enjoy His grace irrespective of situations and experiences of consuming smoke, shaking bones and filled eyes. They had a place to go and a person to speak to and enjoy fellowship even in the midst of a furnace. They knew that their prayers and cries for help reached the Lord’s ears, and that was enough for them, as they lived in the hope of deliverance.
Dear reader, are you crying to the Lord today in distress? Is the heat becoming more and more intense and unbearable? Remember, the Lord allows His choicest servants to go through the furnace to purify them further. So His children need not be afraid of fire. Even when you are in the midst of smoke, your Lord is holding your hands and taking you forward. When you cannot see forward because of the smoke, you can still walk by faith because your Lord is leading you. Your tough experiences are designed by the enemy to defeat you, but your Lord turns it around to build your faith up and make you stronger in trust. Today there is abundance of grace for you as you go through the rough patches in life, to hold on to the Lord for help to keep going. But crowns are waiting for us as we graduate from Jesus’ school of faith. Your experiences are not punishments, but investments in spiritual growth, faith and trust. Let His hands mold you to become a great vessel of honor for His use. What more comfort would you need today than to know that you are in the Lord’s His hands and that His purposes in you are being fulfilled! Ultimately the Lord gets glory through your life which is the best worship you could ever offer to the One who became a sacrifice for you.
Psalms 102:2 – Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress; incline Your ear to me; in the day when I call answer me quickly.
Thought for Today
The Lord sends rays of hope even through the darkest cloud and grey smoke.
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