I received some very disappointing news the other day. Not totally unexpected, but I really was hoping for a different outcome. It has threatened to plunge me into an abyss of hopelessness. But I keep clawing my way back up. I don't want to go there.
I read this verse from a daily devotional this morning:
"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." (Psalm 138:8)
The reading was about how God uses suffering to bring us into a place of peaceful submission to His will, after which He will do a great work in us. To quote:
"Oh, the blessedness of being absolutely conquered! of losing our own strength, and wisdom, and plans, and desires, and being where every atom of our nature is like placid Galilee under the omnipotent feet of our Jesus."
Sounds glorious, doesn't it? I can read those types of quotes on a good day and agree with them. But when I am in the midst of a struggle, I say to myself "just wake me up when it's over!" Do you ever feel that way?
Still, we are in His hands, no matter what the circumstance is. We are in process. Just like the young cardinal above, who has a long way to go before he is a glorious red color, we are growing in Christ-likeness. God is doing a work; not outwardly to make us a brilliant crimson against a blue sky, but to perfect in us a sweet smelling savor that will draw the lost, and an inward brightness to be lights in a dark world.
