I can do all things

I have started reading a book that someone leant me, called 'When God Weeps, Why our sufferings matter to the Almighty'.

I've only got a few chapters into it and already it's helped me to pray. The authors say some pretty hard hitting stuff. The one sentence so far which has stayed with me is "It is worth anything to be his friend." It really did get me thinking... yes it is isn't it? The God of the universe, the Almighty Powerful creator; yes it is worth anything to be His. To be His child, his sister, his bride, his friend.

And yet it's not just as simple as that, it's not like we simply endure a life of suffering and then get to Heaven, no it's better than that. God, the Almighty, endures the suffering as well, when we suffer He suffers with us. He's so complex that He can ordain our suffering and yet suffer with us. We are made in the image of God, and therefore our characters are so complex that we suffer and yet at the same time as suffering, through our tears we are able to say 'Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice'. Don't they say that laughter heals all ills? Why is that? Laughter is a sign of joy, and it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength.

The world will tell us that when we are down, we have to be miserable; we can't show a smiling face because no-one will believe we are upset. Yet, the Bible, full of delightful truths, tells us that when we are suffering we will rejoice in Christ, when we suffer we can joy in the fact that our light afflictions are for this world only, and soon we will be in Heaven with Him, rejoicing with no tears and no pain.

And yet we have to live in this world, we do have to keep on keeping on, we do have to find the strength from somewhere to get out of bed in the morning and keep on fighting the fight. Sometimes our strength is exhausted. Sometimes we just can't take anymore. Sometime's Gods answer to a cry for help is "By my Grace, you can take more than this". And yet, He's there, He's carrying us, He gives us strength to live day by day, to make the difficult choices. He gives us friends and brothers and sisters in Christ to bear our burdens with us, to weep with us when we weep.

By God's grace I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

All this may seem glib, and I assure you that I can only write it because I have spent the morning in tears and in prayer. It doesn't mean that we aren't allowed to ask 'Why Lord?' didn't Christ on the cross ask 'Why have you forsaken me?' . And those are the hardest times; when we are in the midst of trial and unlike the 3 Hebrew boys in Babylon, Christ doesn't seem to be there in the midst of the fire; we can't see Him, can't feel His presence. Those are the times that we have to trust in His promises. I was hearing on Sunday night that we have to "Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God" and there are some wonderful promises.

A bruised reed he will not break
Great peace have those who love your law and nothing can make them stumble
He will set my feet upon a rock
We have a high priest who sympathises with our weaknesses
God has for us a future and a hope
He knows the path that I take
His word will be a lamp to our feet

Now all we need to do is use His strength to Trust in the God of Promises and Believe in the Promises of God.