Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The Dark Before The Dawn - Hope For The Suffering Christian

While the song at the bottom of this post was written about a certain event, the lyrics were meaningful to me.

Some valleys are so dark, that it is difficult to believe that we will ever get out.
We like to imagine that Christians will never go through these valleys.
We should be always filled with joy, right?

Yet Christians can still be tormented physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Jesus still loves us and cares, and in the garden of Gethsemane, He suffered too.
He suffered on the cross agony more than what we could ever bear.
Sometimes we feel that we are at the point where we cannot bear our suffering for even a moment longer, but yet there is little we can do but cry out to God as our Father to have mercy on us as His children.

The darkness may come to believers, but in those times we need to turn to the Lord...not away.
We can look to His promises.  We can bring verses to our minds by our memory or by reading them.

We should redirect our thoughts to what the Bible says to set our minds on (Philippians 4:6-8), and we should remind ourselves about who God is and about His loving care.

Sometimes you may feel that you can't do anything, but then you can still call out to God and wait for Him to answer.
There is hope.  We can trust Him for that.  He either brings relief, or He will bring us the strength to endure.
There is refuge in Him even in your darkness, and there will be a glorious dawn one day.
So, keep fighting the fight of faith, and remember that He knows, that He understands, and that He is right there with you - if you are His.
He is merciful and gracious, and He is patient.
We must be patient in our dark times, and we need to remind ourselves to rest in Him.

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