Yesterday was a rough day. I checked my email in the morning and saw an email from a friend who was asking for prayer because he fell into a sin that he has been struggling with. He's in the middle of the battle where the mind seems to take over at times and it looks hopeless. As my heart went out to him and I started to pray, I was flooded with what has taken place in my life, as well as those who I run with. Another friend of mine found out that their father is in stage three of cancer and his drinking and smoking have finally caught up with him. Another close relative is going through a foreclosure on a significant land transaction that fell through. My best friend is going in for a check up on their unborn baby and trying to prepare for the worst as they have had three miscarriages already. He is struggling to find joy and peace when all they have had loss and heartache. My mother wrote us today and told us about my grandfather and his pain that he is experiencing. He also has cancer and is about to go through radiation at the age of 73 and needs the 24/7 attention from my grandmother, bless her soul. There have been tears and sorrow as we prepare for the worst. Then my wife comes home from work and tells me that she started bleeding. We found out six weeks ago that we're pregnant, and now there is fear of miscarriage. We have had family and friends experience several miscarriages, we just hoped we wouldn't be added to the list. All of this and I'm sitting here waiting on a job. I haven't been working for four months and it's starting to take it's toll. I'm getting restless and fearful I'll have to wait longer, or that it won't work out at all and I'll have to get a job doing who knows what.This is all overwhelming. I just started to cry as I thought about the pain that God's people go through. There are a lot of times when life is just hard, really hard. There is no perfect answer, nothing can take the pain away, things seem to just go really bad. And then I remember that we have a God who loves us, a God who is on our side, a God who cares about his people, and although allows it to happen, is right in the middle of it all with us. Where do people turn that don't know the Savior? Where do they go in times like these. It's hard enough being a child of the King, I'm so blessed to know that He is in control and this is part of his sovereign plan. I got some great advice from a friend: it's a combination of honesty/humility that we need to come with before the King. Honesty that this hurts, honesty that we don't like it, honesty that he could change the situation, asking for it to work, but also being humble enough to accept what God delivers, accepting the way it turns out. Accept the life God has written for me before the beginning of time, has great purpose. And ask for grace needed to do so. Jesus gave the prime example for this right before his death:
And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them,
JTH
