Suffering

The Sun Seemed Quite Blocked

The sun seemed quite blocked
By cloud of unknowing,
In anguish I’m locked
Miles apart from God’s glowing,
In sorrow I sit
Adrift and decaying,
I turn on the spit,
I’m split, God’s filleting.

If tincture of time
Could evict my inversion,
I’d wait for sublime
And unblemished conversion,
But something inside,
Unsettled, is gnawing,
Where visions collide
An insistence is pawing.

Alert to the call
I rotate an ear,
From under the pall
A snippet I hear,
The tiniest clue,
No more than a tinkling,
Light as the dew,
A fairy dust sprinkling.

God in His subtle,
Mysterious way,
Had deigned a rebuttal

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The Best is Yet to Come


“Now he is comforted!” Luke 16:25

Poor suffering Lazarus had little comfort on earth–but he has plenty in Heaven. The discomfort he suffered here–must make his comfort there tenfold more sweet!

As it was with him, so will it be with us–we shall not lack comfort for long. We have much to comfort us now, even in our worst seasons–but the best is yet to come! The God of all comfort, who sends down drops of comfort now–will soon call us up to enter into the torrents of the fullness of His joy forever! Weeping may endure for a night–but joy comes in the morning. Soon our sufferings and sorrows will be forever ended!

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When Hope is Lost

Many of us have been taught that hoping only brings about disappointment. Because of hopes dashed in the past. The promises we believed were broken. We were left feeling like fools for ever hoping in the first place. We stay in a constant state of fear of losing it all in an instant. Fear of hoping against hope. Fear of having your hopes crushed. Everything we live is a learning experience. There is no failure. There is only an attempt that didn’t turn out as expected. In living life this way, we can hope after experiencing a loss. Our focus and energy is simply redirected. With every risk we take, we are teaching ourselves. Giving ourselves the gift of learning how to try and how to fail so that we can try again with more wisdom. We are teaching myself about succeeding.

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How Can We Turn our Suffering into Joy?

Is it even possible to turn our suffering into joy? I believe it is because I have done it many times. The joy we feel while in the midst of suffering is our connection to God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit within us!

In Romans 5:3 it says that we should be rejoicing in our sufferings. What does that mean? It means that Christians will face difficulties in this life, throughout their lives, and through those difficulties, if they remain faithful to God, they spiritually grow and build Godly Christian character in the Lord.

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The Nature and Basis of Assurance

At the commencement of Matthew 5 we find the Lord Jesus pronouncing blessed a certain class of people. They are not named as “believers” or saints,” but instead are described by their characters; and it is only by comparing ourselves and others with the description that the Lord Jesus there gave, that we are enabled to identify such. First, He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” To be “poor in spirit” is to have a feeling sense that in me, that is, in my flesh, “there dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18). It is the realization that 1 am utterly destitute of anything and everything which could commend me favorably to God’s notice. It is to recognize that I am a spiritual bankrupt.

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Affliction Prepared For and Improved

“It was good for me to be afflicted–so that I might learn your decrees.” Psalm 119:71

As it is the duty of God’s children to prepare for affliction before it comes; so it is also their duty to improve affliction when it does come.

If we do not prepare for affliction–we shall be surprised by it;
and, if we do not improve it–we are likely to increase it.

He who would prepare for affliction, must beforehand:
(1.) resign all to God,
(2.) strengthen his graces,
(3.) store up divine promises,
(4.) and search out secret sins.

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Prayers for Protection: The Psalms

Below are Psalms you may want to read or pray for protection:
Also see: Prayer for Protection
Prayer for Protection and Guidance

Psalm 16
Preserve me, O God:
for in thee do I put my trust.
O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD,
Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

But to the saints that are in the earth,
and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god:
their drink offerings of blood will I not offer,
nor take up their names into my lips.

The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
thou maintainest my lot.

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100 Significant Scriptures

This is easily the longest article I’ve ever written. Check out the next few sentences and you’ll see why.

A while back someone asked me to define my “life verse.”

I suppose if I HAD to choose a single passage I’d pick Romans 8:28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

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