.... reflecting.... it's what the JOG( Journey of Growth) book had prescribed for this week.... reflecting on what God has been saying over the last 10 weeks reading 1 & 2 Peter...
As I wrote my summary I noted that the message of these two books has been resonating with me over the last 18 months of my life... so the last 10 weeks have been a summary in themselves...
My walk with Him over the last 18 months has taught me so much... first of all... that suffering is just a fact of life... 1st Peter goes on and on about that... do not be surprised if you are experiencing grief in all kinds of trials..
I remember the day I found out my husband and my cousin, my most beloved friend and "little sister" where having an affair... driving to meet my best friend at the church... screaming out of the pain they inflicted... I was thinking that this is how Christ must have felt when He was betrayed by one of His disciples... and I know that the comparison doesn't quite work... I was not being killed, even though it felt like that... and He really already knew ahead of time... still hurt on a human level I am sure...
So suffering... it happens... again and again.... when he walked right out of our home, abandoning all of us a week before Christmas... pain to an extent that I could have never imagined possible...
Suffering.. walking in it daily... sometimes just barely surviving... making it from one breath to the next...
And then.... He... He is there... always... He knows... we are achieving the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls... we are being refined, so that our faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire will be proved genuine and will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.....
Pain and suffering... yes.... making it through by His grace, being refined and bringing glory to Him...
We are also challenged to live a holy and blameless life... resist temptation and the devil... live to bring glory to Him...
The big lesson... none of it is possible without Him.... my last 18 months.... walking through it in forgiveness and grace.... only possible with Him... hope for a light at the end of the tunnel... only through Him... my life here.... only for Him.... love for others that do not care about me... only possible through Him... His love flowing through me , His arms catching me, holding me close to His heart... listening to His heartbeat and flooded with a love so divine so unending so amazing... a love that makes it all worth wile... the pain, the agony... the betrayal and the rejection... the hanging on when it seems impossible...
It hurts, and it will always hurt.... but what I have gained is so much more... my next step of love for those who hurt me has been and will always be to pray for them, lift them up to the Saviour...so that they may one day find just that..... the goal of our lives here....... to be eternally connected with HIM............. Nothing compares... Nothing!!!!!!!
