Daniel has been reading The Kings Cross by Tim Keller and for the last couple of weeks has been reading portions of it to me at dinner. It has blessed me immensely. So on this Monday I would like to share a little of this blessing with you. I pray it encourages your soul like it did mine.
"And when you suffer, you may be completely in the dark about the reason for your own suffering. It may seem as senseless to you as Jesus's suffering seemed to the disciples. But the cross tells you what the reason isn't. It can't be that God doesn't love you; it can't be that he has no plan for you. It can't be that he has abandoned you. Jesus was abandoned, and paid for our sins, so that God the Father would never abandon you. The cross proves that he loves you and understands what it means to suffer. It also demonstrates that God can be working in your life even when it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what is happening."
Praise God that our suffering in this life is not evidence of his lack of love for us. How comforting to the one who can't see through the dark clouds of suffering or sorrow. If you are his child, he loves you and is working a thousand things in your circumstance that you might not see right now. Sometimes he gives us little glimpses of what he is doing in our suffering, sometimes he doesn't. But one day it will all be brought into the light. And for that day we wait.
"On the Day of the Lord - the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad comes untrue - on that day the same thing will happen to your hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that have ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear."
"And when you suffer, you may be completely in the dark about the reason for your own suffering. It may seem as senseless to you as Jesus's suffering seemed to the disciples. But the cross tells you what the reason isn't. It can't be that God doesn't love you; it can't be that he has no plan for you. It can't be that he has abandoned you. Jesus was abandoned, and paid for our sins, so that God the Father would never abandon you. The cross proves that he loves you and understands what it means to suffer. It also demonstrates that God can be working in your life even when it seems like there is no rhyme or reason to what is happening."
Praise God that our suffering in this life is not evidence of his lack of love for us. How comforting to the one who can't see through the dark clouds of suffering or sorrow. If you are his child, he loves you and is working a thousand things in your circumstance that you might not see right now. Sometimes he gives us little glimpses of what he is doing in our suffering, sometimes he doesn't. But one day it will all be brought into the light. And for that day we wait.
"On the Day of the Lord - the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad comes untrue - on that day the same thing will happen to your hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that have ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear."