Many are the Afflictions

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

Psalms 34:18-19 NASB

Many are the afflictions...

I would be lying if this isn't what the last 24 hours haven't felt like.   Like one thing after another after another bombarding me.  Almost tsunami like in the ever increasing wave upon wave.  Nothing huge in its own right but in volume, yes.

Things that ought to have worked out well did not.  Things happening on more than one front.  In a way, it was to me like the beginning of the book of Job in its own way. 

But in all of it, God saw me through what is now history.  It's in the past.  Gone.

Think about that.  All the efforts you will put into today will not last.  Do you make the most of your moments? 

In all I do I try to be true to what I believe in Christ.  I may not understand what it is that I go through or why, much as Job, Joseph, Moses, John, James or others didn't.  Think about James for a moment.  Here you are, supposedly one of the 'Sons of Thunder" and not too much beyond the Crucifixion, you are killed.  No big career as an Apostle.

I don't tell you all my woes on here and won't go into detail because it's not what this blog is for.  It's about sharing what God's shared with me. 

I really didn't know what I was to be writing about this morning until I had finished my own Journal entry. 

We all will face affliction.  Yet as another verse that I had read stated that the Kingdom of God belongs to those who come as children do.  Children trust implicitly.  They love unconditionally.  They have no preconceptions.  No preconceived ideas of how life is supposed to be. 

Will today be better than yesterday? I do not know.   All I know is that it matters not.   What matters is that in everything we are to give thanks.  I am thankful not just that the burdens of yesterday are through, but that in everything it could have been worse.  I could have gone through things without God.  Thankfully that is something that I will never know.

Think about that.   As a Christian there will never be a day when you will find yourself going through a day alone.

If you are reading this and are not a Christian, every day you live you go through it alone.

I have the promise and privilege of Jesus saying He will never leave me nor forsake me.  Jesus has never lied nor is He capable of doing so.

I have a new day in front of me.  One with hope written all over it. As another passage reads, this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I may yet have another day similar to yesterday but I know this day, like all before it has my Savior at my side.  We leave each morning together for work and spend the day together.  If I am going through difficulties it's because I have something to learn or it's because there are others who aren't able to handle what they could be going through. So the burden is shared. 

In Christ I have all the power of Jesus in me.  I don't understand it all but that's what Scripture says.  I am being molded and shaped.  I am being made into the image of Christ.  My life is not my own, I was bought with a price. 

Hope is only possible through Christ.
It matters not what this life throws at me as long as I remember that.

When I only look at what I see, I will always have moments of fear. But when I am granted to see things as Christ does, the fear goes away. 

I think of Elijah's prayer.  Open his eyes that he may see.  And the army of God that was there filled the countryside.

Today is no different for those who are in Christ.  The army of God fills the community and country.  We may no longer be a Godly nation, but this nation cannot remove God. Legislation nor words of man can ever force the hand of God to leave.

Thank you Jesus for your faithfulness in these troubled times.  Thank you for your promises.  Thank you for never leaving me alone.  Though I may be battered on all sides you are there. Though the enemy may scoff at me, my head is not dropped in failure, it's lowered in prayer.