Category: . . . Suffering & Sorrow
Testing
After these things, God tested Abraham. (Genesis 22:1)God is ruthlessly interested in your faith. He will use everything at His disposal to develop you into a person who trusts Him. He knows that your life, the life and salvation of those around you, and His glory...
Regarding Thursday: Comfort for Christians Facing Illness and Uncertainty About the Future
“Regarding Thursday,” I wrote to a friend, “please do not be worried.” She was a few days away from exploratory surgery which might reveal anything from a clean bill of health to cancer. In her email to me she had admitted her trepidation and asked for...
Reflections from a Week of Sickness
It was 3 a.m. and I was shivering. The problem? It was hot outside, and I was in a home without air conditioning. I was also far from my home because I was teaching at a church in another state for the weekend. As quietly as...
Losing Heart: The Christian’s Fierce Foe
I face an enemy daily, sometimes hourly. Perhaps you know him too. Many are his names. So ubiquitous, so pervasive, so insidious is he that the New Testament identifies him six times as “Losing Heart.” Losing Heart invites us to embrace discouragement, agree to quitting, welcome...
Give Me Justice
Jesus ends with this: “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” All of this has to do with appeals for justice. We see this kind of appeal...
Four Hopes For Hard Times
How should we confront the difficult times life invariably brings? One way is to learn from those who have succeeded in similar straits. Joseph the patriarch faced incredible trials, and his life holds many lessons to give us hope. Let’s look at four. DELIVERANCE IS COMING...
Encouragement from Job the Sufferer
Like twin tsunamis, affliction overtook Job in two crushing waves. First his immense wealth and his ten children were swept away. Then his body was tormented by “loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (2:7).Job’s story spans forty-two chapters...
Drinking From the Bitter Waters
By many miracles, God delivered Israel out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. Immediately thereafter, they were three days in the wilderness without water. When they did find at Marah the water they had desperately sought, it was bitter (Exodus 15:22-25). How would they respond...
Bathing the Cat
Have you ever given a cat a bath? Being much wiser than the cat, you know that he needs a bath because he is dirty and smells awful. The cat, on the other hand, has a decidedly different opinion. He hates water, does not believe he...
An Empty Chair at Christmas
Sometimes the hope of Christmas is, “Next year all our troubles will be miles away.” That’s what the song says anyway, but many will not have a merry Christmas just because of that. They know it is not true. Many start with and cannot get past...