My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. --Psalm 119:50
A famous evangelist told of a friend that lost his job, a sizable fortune, and his beautiful home because of a decline in his business. And to make matters worse, his loving wife died, adding more to his sorrow.
Yet in the midst of it all, he held steadfastly to his faith?what seemed to be the only thing he had left.
One day, as he was taking a walk around town in search of employment, he spotted a group of men doing stonework on a large church nearby. He stopped to watch one of the men chisel a large triangular piece of rock.
Being curious, he approached the man and asked, “Excuse me. Where are you going to put that?”
The workman replied, “Do you see that little opening up there near the spire? Well, I’m shaping this stone down here so that it will fit in up there.”
As the grief-stricken man walked away, tears filled his eyes, for the Lord had spoken clearly to him through that laborer. The workman’s words gave new meaning to the sorrow-filled man’s troubled situation.
While not being completely filled with stories of ultimate despair, the Bible is not altogether peaceful and it doesn’t completely avoid heartache. And God’s Word doesn’t even have all the answers to the questions behind suffering.
Yet it does share that the sovereignty of God prevails in the midst of suffering. We can find great comfort in any situation we face knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered once as well.
If you learn to focus on Jesus and follow Him faithfully during times of trouble, then He can shape you into a perfect fit while you’re in the valley and eventually set you high up on the mountaintop.
PRAYER CHALLENGE: Ask the Lord to bring meaning and victory into times of suffering in your life.
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