Each week before I teach the children at church, all of the teachers gather, share and pray together. I enjoy this 10-15 minutes of time, because we get to hear each others testimonies from struggles to praises, and frustrations to thanksgiving. If you know me, you could imagine that each week I share my own. I hesitate to speak up, because my stories sound so extreme, "When I was near death..." Haha! This past week we were talking about how you have been able to encourage someone who feels hopeless. As the circle disengages, a gentleman named Jeff stops me to chat. He's eager to learn more about my life and struggles. He asks questions and responds with an eagerness to pray for me.
I can feel his light shine in the dark parts of my life.
After he listens, I naturally ask about his story. Attentive to his life struggles, my mouth nearly drops. Suddenly I feel like I should not have been complaining or seeking prayer from him. His daughter's heart stopped at birth. It was long enough to lose nearly all of her abilities including talking. They are in and out of the hospital all of the time, infections off and on. It's one thing for me to go through this sickness, but it's another to watch your child suffer so much. As much as I've complained about my girls sickness, I've never even been close to what Jeff has faced for all of his daughters life. She's starting school this week and has a new teacher. Jeff is concerned, so I shared about Lilli's tough change in schools. I asked with expectation, "Is she nervous?" He responds saying, "Well she's nonverbal so I don't know." Suddenly I shrink back, as if I know nothing about this seemingly rough life I'm living. He tells me that he and his wife are nervous though.
He's interested in my story.
How can that be? He wants to spend time devoted to prayer for me? How could I even compare? But I do. My story is a testimony of God's grace as I battle in and out sorrow. For some reason Jeff feels as if I'm a light in the dark parts of his life too. God's ways are bigger than ours, and we never know how deep our stories go into the lives of others. In sharing, our hearts are filled with joy, the joy that only comes from God. How could joy come out of such hard, dark, painful areas of our life?
Knowing that we are not alone.
We are not alone. God is stable. He's constant. He never changes. He's eternal. But not only that, God sends us others who understand. Others who know the pain, the heartache. Others who know what it's like to put on our face to family and friends.
He's not a stranger.
He's a brother in Christ. As much as we share heartache, pain and struggles, we are connected through Christ. As much as our stories would seem hopeless, they are not. They are full of hope, love and endurance. Without Christ, it is hopeless. Without Christ, we are perishing in our tears. Without Christ, death is near.
In Christ, even death cannot hold us down.
2 Cor 4:6-9 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are...
hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Satan is our enemy, not God.
2 Cor 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but
what is unseen is eternal.
I can feel his light shine in the dark parts of my life.
After he listens, I naturally ask about his story. Attentive to his life struggles, my mouth nearly drops. Suddenly I feel like I should not have been complaining or seeking prayer from him. His daughter's heart stopped at birth. It was long enough to lose nearly all of her abilities including talking. They are in and out of the hospital all of the time, infections off and on. It's one thing for me to go through this sickness, but it's another to watch your child suffer so much. As much as I've complained about my girls sickness, I've never even been close to what Jeff has faced for all of his daughters life. She's starting school this week and has a new teacher. Jeff is concerned, so I shared about Lilli's tough change in schools. I asked with expectation, "Is she nervous?" He responds saying, "Well she's nonverbal so I don't know." Suddenly I shrink back, as if I know nothing about this seemingly rough life I'm living. He tells me that he and his wife are nervous though.
He's interested in my story.
How can that be? He wants to spend time devoted to prayer for me? How could I even compare? But I do. My story is a testimony of God's grace as I battle in and out sorrow. For some reason Jeff feels as if I'm a light in the dark parts of his life too. God's ways are bigger than ours, and we never know how deep our stories go into the lives of others. In sharing, our hearts are filled with joy, the joy that only comes from God. How could joy come out of such hard, dark, painful areas of our life?
Knowing that we are not alone.
We are not alone. God is stable. He's constant. He never changes. He's eternal. But not only that, God sends us others who understand. Others who know the pain, the heartache. Others who know what it's like to put on our face to family and friends.
He's not a stranger.
He's a brother in Christ. As much as we share heartache, pain and struggles, we are connected through Christ. As much as our stories would seem hopeless, they are not. They are full of hope, love and endurance. Without Christ, it is hopeless. Without Christ, we are perishing in our tears. Without Christ, death is near.
In Christ, even death cannot hold us down.
2 Cor 4:6-9 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are...
hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
Satan is our enemy, not God.
2 Cor 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but
what is unseen is eternal.
