Hope During Times of Prolonged Suffering - Part 2 - By Jennifer O. White

Hope During Times of Prolonged Suffering – Part 2

In our last post, we explored the risk of hoping when suffering seems to be endless.

My friend needs to see the ship of her suffering nearing the port where she and her family get to step off. Can you relate to that? Are you watching someone hope for a glimpse of hope in the present circumstances?

Our faith is in God who promises -- hope is very real.

Corrie Ten Boom (a lady who has earned the right to talk about hope during prolonged suffering) once said, ”God doesn’t have problems. He only has plans.”

In Today is Your Best Day, Roy Lessin teaches us that “God makes each day fit perfectly into His plans for you. God made this day so you could glorify Him. He made this day so that He could draw you closer to His heart. He made this day so that you could see your life from faith’s point of view.”

On day 1105 of your debilitating and bankrupting saga, could you see life from faith’s point of view? (I am sure if I were able, it would not be from my own strength.)

These words from 1 Corinthians 13 blew a refreshing wind into my sail as I searched for hope for my friend:

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:

Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love.
 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 MSG

Love.

We’ve explored the faith in God lived out by the suffering Job, Paul, and Corrie Ten Boom. We dared to repeat the words “Today is my best day because God can be trusted with my life.” Let’s look at the best, the greatest of the three words: Love.

God’s love for my hope-starved friend is extravagant and beyond our comprehension. (Ephesians 3:18-20) But what if for the moment, maybe for a while, she can’t grasp it because if just feels like trying to hold Jell-O?

What can we do on her behalf? On your dear one’s behalf?

We can call on His glory strength to empower each one who suffers to know – to experience - the depth of His love while suffering.

We can believe that God IS at work in this one who suffers, and is able to accomplish MORE than we can dare to dream or ask Him to do.

We can dare to dream of what He can do. If He can sustain and rescue Corrie Ten Boom, then how COULD He help our friend? List 1000 ways. Seriously! What more God honoring thing could you do than declare that He is able to do 1000 loving things for your friend. Dreaming of what God is able to accomplish is worshipping Him.

Love that suffering friend extravagantly. Ask God to show you what that looks like in each situation. His glory strength is ready to empower you to ….. show up consistently, pray with big faith, and rally 100 people to join you in interceding, speak blessings into their hearts and those who are enduring with them. Trust that He will supply all of your needs while He uses you to hope on the behalf of the one who is weary of hoping.

Love extravagantly!

Jennifer O. White is an author, speaker and encourager to those seeking a life of hope, peace and confidence. You are invited to join her on a brave life, marriage, and world-changing adventure with Jesus at her blog: Prayerfully Speaking, and her free ebook: Prayers Spoken, Lives Changed: God’s Extraordinary Love in 18 Ordinary Lives. Check out her upcoming book for new brides here.

Hope During Times of Prolonged Suffering Part 1 - by Jennifer O. White

Hope During Times of Prolonged Suffering

I am particularly burdened for a sweet friend whose life changed dramatically after a stroke. Three years later she’s living with great losses that stem from that one incident. Her heart longs for the one thing her faith is sure of – the hope of heaven.

Hope During Times of Prolonged Suffering

I am particularly burdened for a sweet friend whose life changed dramatically after a stroke. Three years later she’s living with great losses that stem from that one incident. Her heart longs for the one thing her faith is sure of – the hope of heaven.

Do you have a similar burden?

Is someone in your life in need of a NOW hope? Is it you?

Oh how I want her to hope for something In the more foreseeable future – something much sooner than heaven. I want to reach into her future grab something for her to hang her hope on, and bring it back for her to stare at everyday. Where is Michael J. Fox and that fancy back to the future car when we need it?

My heart scans the truths from biblical history and beyond.

How did Job survive the physical suffering as well as his many losses? How did Paul rejoice in prison and after beatings? How did Corrie Ten Boom survive solitary confinement, concentration camps, and the torture of captivity? 

Faith. 

Corrie Ten Boom explained,  

“There are circumstances where you cannot do anything. It was only the Lord who has carried me through, and it’s good that I have experienced that. For I have always believed, now I know from experience, that Jesus’ light is stronger than the deepest darkness. And a child of God cannot go so deep; always deeper are the Everlasting Arms that carry you.”

Hope

Our hope is in God. He has promised a beautiful, sorrow-free life in heaven but He has not promised when. For some, life can be so hard for so long that it’s hard to not wish it were now. How does a Christ-follower keep hoping for a better tomorrow when the much needed and prayed for miracle has been a no-show for years?

In the must-have devotional, Today is Your Best Day, Roy Lessin teaches,

·                  Today is your best day because you are here. God has placed you in this moment of time for a purpose, and the things that happen to you today will be an unfolding of that purpose.

·                  What happened to you yesterday, however easy or difficult, was used by God to help prepare you for what He has for you today.

·                  God will use what happens today to prepare you for what He has for you in future days.

·                  God used your past and worked it all together for the good, and He will use this day to add  to the good that He has already worked on your behalf.

Do you believe the above statements are true for you?

Do you believe they are true for the one who is suffering and is very aware this suffering is a hardship on others?

Re-read them. Put your name in the sentence: “Today is my best day because …”. Now, read it with the name of your suffering friend(s).

Prayer Prompt:

Let’s ask God, the Source of all miracles and Sustainer of the suffering, to grant us His perspective on this really difficult subject of suffering and hope.

We will continue exploring this subject in the next post. Until then, we can keep listening for God’s revelation. I’m eager to hear what you learn on this from Him. 

Jennifer O. White is an author, speaker and encourager to those seeking a life of hope, peace and confidence. You are invited to join her on a brave life, marriage, and world-changing adventure with Jesus at her blog: Prayerfully Speaking, and her free ebook: Prayers Spoken, Lives Changed: God’s Extraordinary Love in 18 Ordinary Lives. Check out her upcoming book for new brides here.

 

 

Do you have a similar burden?

Is someone in your life in need of a NOW hope? Is it you?

Oh how I want her to hope for something In the more foreseeable future – something much sooner than heaven. I want to reach into her future grab something for her to hang her hope on, and bring it back for her to stare at everyday. Where is Michael J. Fox and that fancy back to the future car when we need it?

My heart scans the truths from biblical history and beyond.

How did Job survive the physical suffering as well as his many losses? How did Paul rejoice in prison and after beatings? How did Corrie Ten Boom survive solitary confinement, concentration camps, and the torture of captivity? 

Faith.

 

Corrie Ten Boom explained,

 

“There are circumstances where you cannot do anything. It was only the Lord who has carried me through, and it’s good that I have experienced that. For I have always believed, now I know from experience, that Jesus’ light is stronger than the deepest darkness. And a child of God cannot go so deep; always deeper are the Everlasting Arms that carry you.”

Hope

Our hope is in God. He has promised a beautiful, sorrow-free life in heaven but He has not promised when. For some, life can be so hard for so long that it’s hard to not wish it were now. How does a Christ-follower keep hoping for a better tomorrow when the much needed and prayed for miracle has been a no-show for years?

In the must-have devotional, Today is Your Best Day, Roy Lessin teaches,

·                  Today is your best day because you are here. God has placed you in this moment of time for a purpose, and the things that happen to you today will be an unfolding of that purpose.

·                  What happened to you yesterday, however easy or difficult, was used by God to help prepare you for what He has for you today.

·                  God will use what happens today to prepare you for what He has for you in future days.

·                  God used your past and worked it all together for the good, and He will use this day to add to the good that He has already worked on your behalf.

Do you believe the above statements are true for you?

Do you believe they are true for the one who is suffering and is very aware this suffering is a hardship on others?

Re-read them. Put your name in the sentence: “Today is my best day because …”. Now, read it with the name of your suffering friend(s).

Prayer Prompt:

Let’s ask God, the Source of all miracles and Sustainer of the suffering, to grant us His perspective on this really difficult subject of suffering and hope.

We will continue exploring this subject in the next post. Until then, we can keep listening for God’s revelation. I’m eager to hear what you learn on this from Him.

 

Updated Bio:

 

Jennifer O. White is an author, speaker and encourager to those seeking a life of hope, peace and confidence. You are invited to join her on a brave life, marriage, and world-changing adventure with Jesus at her blog: Prayerfully Speaking, and her free ebook: Prayers Spoken, Lives Changed: God’s Extraordinary Love in 18 Ordinary Lives. Check out her upcoming book for new brides here.

 

 

"Living Water" - By Melissa Driggers

Creative Commons

On some days, I can’t look at them.  Sometimes looking at my scars is just too much.

You see, my scars aren’t just surgical.  As a result of the surgery to remove the cancer from my leg, I developed a permanent, incurable disease that leaves me with deformity, daily unrelenting pain, and which has changed my way of life in radical ways.  On some days, the pain is so bad that I can’t walk at all.

Managing the illness is challenging, to say the least.  Through it, though, I have come to rely on His presence and the peace that passes all understanding with a depth that I never imagined possible before cancer and lymphedema.  For that, I am so very grateful.  

Yet even so, I can’t lie.  Living with this stinks, with a capital “S”.  I mean it really, really stinks.  Every day, it is a challenge to reclaim the sense of femininity I once knew.  Every day, I choose to fight for a sense of external beauty that now so often seems so far out of reach when I see my own reflection.   Friends, on most days, that emotional and spiritual battle is exhausting.

After trying many treatments to “manage” the disease to the point of utter emotional and physical exhaustion, including wearing a cast from hip to toe for 8 weeks (THAT was fun!), spending thousands of dollars on physical therapy and custom compression garments, and exercising for countless hours on treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes (all of which made it even worse), I recently found myself officially at the last resort… 

THE POOL!   (cue the scary music here…)

Y’all know what that means, right?  A bathing suit.  A bathing suit would never, ever be able to hide my scars, not to mention the fact that I’d be in a public pool, and the last time I checked, “public” means that other people would be there.   Seriously, God? 

Since my surgery two years ago, I had never exposed my leg in public and had zero plans to do so, but something inside me just knew that my answer was in the water.  So, I bought an athletic swimsuit and signed up for water exercise classes at the community aquatic center.  I swallowed ALL of my pride as I donned that swimsuit and showed up for the “Get Wet and Sweat” class a few days later.  My head was down, and I didn’t make eye contact with anyone, but I was there.  

It was a lot to take in at first – familiarizing myself with the movements, trying not to drown (ha!), chuckling inwardly at the cheesy background music, and conquering the many fears that I’d brought in with me.  The instructor guided us to do a high-intensity segment of “flutter kicks”, and all at once I realized that in the water I was able to move in ways that were not possible on the ground. 

Wait…how can this be?  In the water, my pain is gone.

In that moment, I completely lost it, and started sobbing.  I don’t mean a delicate little girly cry.  I mean full-blown-snotty-faced WEEPING, right in the middle of thirty men and women doing flutter kicks in the pool to the beat of “Build Me Up Buttercup”.  Worship comes at the most unexpected moments sometimes!  The freedom and healing that came in the water was more than I could comprehend, and my gratitude came pouring out (literally).  After years of suffering on “dry land”, for the first time, I felt whole.  For the first time, I was free.

In the pool that day, the metaphor of the ages had come to life in my heart.

Jesus spoke often of living water, as did the prophets, and water was the venue for miracles, teaching, and healing in the Bible.   One well-known example of this teaching was to the Samaritan Woman.  To her, he explained, “…Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14, NIV).  She had come to the well to fill up her jar with stagnant water from the cistern to drink, but instead she encountered Jesus, who knew everything about her and filled her empty heart with streams of fresh, flowing mercy and grace. 

The water in the pool doesn’t heal me.  His mercy in the water is what makes my broken, diseased body whole again.  

Only when I allow myself to come bare and exposed, showing my scars, at the end of myself, can he show me what is possible with Him. 

What are you struggling with today?  Whatever it is, He is knocking on the door of your tired and empty heart, waiting to fill it with the living water that gives new life.  Let Him. 

Melissa is an itinerant speaker/teacher, blogger, and author residing in the South.  She is single (although she prefers the term “unclaimed treasure”) and lives with her two children, Henry and Hannah, who are “technically” canine (ssshhhh… they don’t know they aren’t human).  Her vision and passion for ministry is to shepherd others to the grace, hope, healing, and restoration found only in Jesus Christ!  Through her own life journey, God has transformed her heart, and she has experienced the true meaning of “beauty from ashes”.

You can connect with Melissa through her web site, at www.infieldsofgrace.com

Click here to view a video of "Mercy" by Casting Crowns

"Resting & Healing in His Shelter" - by Jennifer O. White

Your call to fearlessness is sustaining me.  Thank You, Mighty God, for being my wise counselor, my refuge, and my strength.  

I am covered by Your sheltering wing.  While you shelter me, You are fighting for me.  Time, space, my emotions, resources, and the cares of millions of other souls do not limit You.  

This present darkness does not diminish Your light.  While evil tip toes nearby, I know that You have erected a hedge of protection.  You defend the boundaries of my dearest relationships.  You have given me solace in green pastures and set a beautiful table for me in walking distance of my enemy.  

I sit quietly, releasing the breath that I have held captive in anxiousness.  My teeth are unclenched and my jaw relaxed.  The threat of confrontation thunders, but I am safe with You.  

For a few moments, I rest my head in the bed of Your heavenly ICU, every answer, every kindness, every life-saving precaution offered by You and Your ministering saints and angels. I cry out to you “Help Me”, and I wait, knowing You hear the cry of the broken.  Safety is mine, because You are the administrator of every good thing.

Photo by Jennifer O. White

Your Word is my medicine.  When my energy to speak or read fails, You deliver it to me.  Your song to me is my greatest comfort.  

My strength improves, and I walk to the window.  Your light is warm and invites me to see You at work beyond the walls of my current reality.  Nature reminds me of Your creative power; I see what You have done and smile.  My heart settles to an easy rhythm, and I breathe in a sureness of You.  What I see is much more grand than an army could provide.  

I will rest while You work.  

The removal of my self-protective tissue will heal.  The new implants of surrender and dependence will thrive under Your care.  This place of rest and rehabilitation has five-star accommodations.  

My heart longs to remain here, never again to pay rent to the slumlord of fear.

Jennifer White
Author, Speaker & Encourager
Prayerfully Speaking
@jenniferowhite

Jennifer White pursues God in prayer with the Bible as her guide. She leads others to do the same at Prayerfully Speaking. Wife to David is her highest calling. She recently completed her first book; Prayers for new Brides: Putting on the Armor After the Wedding Dress.  #LIVEWONDERSTRUCK with her that God is and does "more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). #GodAnswers 

Where to Go When Life Gets Turbulent

Photo by Amelia Grace Photography

Where to Go When Life Gets Turbulent

By

Rebecca Halton

 

As I checked in at Hartsfield-Jackson three days after Awaken 2013, the touch-screen computer asked me if I wanted to change my seat assignment.  Curious, I looked at what was available.  Most of the plane was full, but there in the first row, was one open seat.   

It would cost a small fee to change from my aisle seat in the back, to this window seat in the front, but then I considered the bumpy, closed-in feeling of being in the back on the flight to Atlanta.  And I recalled the advice my dad, a retired helicopter pilot, gave me:  

The most stable place on a plane is over the wings; the second-most stable is in front of the wings; and the least stable is in the back of the aircraft.  

No-brainer: I switched seats.  

During the flight, I kept pondering my dad’s advice -- and noticed a parallel for life.  When life gets turbulent, some places are better to “seat ourselves” in than others.  How about row 19A in the rear – as in ‘A’ for anxiety?  No?  Stomach already starting to turn? 

Then how about the place known – and proven through the laws of aerodynamics and physics – to be the most stable place?  The wings.  Or in this analogy: His wings.  Where there is always a seat available for you, and sanctuary is always assured.  In fact: 

“He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.  You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrows that fly by day….  If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.” (Psalm 91:4, 5, 9 and 10, NIV) Click here for the full passage. 

Sometimes seating yourself beneath His wings will involve effort on your part.  Or will come at a cost.  I couldn’t move to a more stable place without paying that extra fee.  In most cases, though, the cost is our comfort, fear, habits, expectations, or sense of control. 

But the greatest cost of all, Jesus already paid.  He paid the price for us to have unlimited, first-class seating under the wings of the Father.  The place in which, no matter what storms rage around us, or turbulent circumstances rock us, is proven to be our best refuge. 

 

Rebecca Halton is an author and speaker, as well as the other half of Team Redeemed (with Shelley Hendrix).  She recently released her third e-book Recalculating: What to do when your life has gone in a different direction than you thought it should.  When she’s not writing, Rebecca loves grabbing coffee with close friends, and learning how to better manage her emotions.  (Photo credit: Sarah Verno)

 

Getting Through this Lingering Storm - @jenniferowhite

Getting Through this Lingering Storm 

By Jennifer White

Do you feel defeated?  Is something in your life causing you to feel subdued and vulnerable?  Are your hopes frustrated, your needs deprived?  Maybe the wreckage seems catastrophic with another storm emerging on the radar.

We long for safety and a secure future.  We want now solutions that buy us victory in the battle against cancer, mental illness, unemployment, oppression, and attacks by others.  We trust that God hears our prayers.  We know that the disciples woke him up from a deep sleep on a storm-tossed boat, and He calmed the sea with a few words.  

Still, this situation, your situation, needs a savior now.  You have prayed.  You asked for God to intervene, and it’s been months, maybe years.  Why doesn’t your Savior enter stage left and tell this hurricane to be still?  

                            

Looking for an Exit Sign 

I’ve been wrestling with this myself.  My human nature sees danger and is looking for an exit sign.  My heart desires peace and is tired of pursuing it only to see the door slammed again.  Doesn’t God want me to walk away?  Doesn’t He want me to finally rest after decades of tension and “sucking it up”.   

I rationalize using this scripture and that one, as they come to me.  I hear wise counsel to act, to stand, to fight, and I still want to shut the door on this long-lasting saga.  Confusion clouds my mind, and my emotions deliver the rain.  This just needs to STOP!  

Then God speaks to me when I am quiet enough to hear Him.  Yesterday, it was in the middle of the night, when the room was dark and I had been at rest for a while.  He reminded me that David, before he became King David, spent years avoiding the vengeful pursuit of King Saul.  He endured more than I can imagine from a powerful foe that had been appointed by God.  The betrayal he must have felt, but he endured.  He even honored his enemy in a cave when he could have released years of pent up frustrations.  He held on to God’s promise that he would one day be king, and he waited.  

Can I Keep Going, Keep Hoping? 

Has God given you a promise that seems like a vacation destination you will never be able to visit?  Are you enduring a storm that rarely gives the sun a chance to shine in your life?  Do you feel like Noah building a big boat with no clue what rain is?  Do you feel like Abraham and Sarah waiting for a baby when your peers are enjoying grandchildren and great-grands?  Do you know you are called to do great things for God but find yourself thrown in a well by your family?  

Who is Driving? 

Today is the day to put fear and hopelessness in the trunk of your car and let faith drive.  This is going to take a little heavy lifting.  Fear can become obese over time and with influence.  HOWEVER, it crumbles when addressed by the reality of God, so roll up your sleeves and tell that crazy phantom who God is. 

He is your Shelter (Psalm 91:1).  

He is a Safe Place to hide (Psalm 46:1).  

He is your Defender (Psalm 18:1).  

He is your Sustainer (Colossians 1:16-17). 

He is the Gentle Shepherd (Isaiah 40:11) who prepares a table for you in the presence of your enemies (Psalm 23:5). 

He pursues you each day with perfect portions of His love, His power, and His sound mind (Psalm 23:6, 2 Timothy 1:7). 

He is enough.  He is more than enough for the length of this crazy hard time you are going through (2 Corinthians 12:9).  

Hold up your difficult person, situation, or illness to Him and see the difference in power.  Take another step forward into the unknown with your eyes on His greatness.  Take the next step in the long tunnel of darkness and know He is with you.

Let God Be God to You

Relief will come.  It might be today, next year, or when you move into the perfection of Heaven.  Until then, He is God, and He is with you and me.  He is enough.  Cling to Him.  See the storm from His perspective.

Jennifer O. White
Author.  Speaker.  Encourager at Prayerfully Speaking
@jenniferowhite

Jennifer White pursues God in prayer with the Bible as her guide.  She leads others to do the same at Prayerfully Speaking.  Wife to David is her highest calling.  She recently completed her first book, Prayers for new Brides:  Putting on the Armor After the Wedding Dress.  #LIVEWONDERSTRUCK with her that God is and does "more than we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20). #GodAnswers 

Click here to view a live video of Martha Munizzi singing "I Know The Plans"

Martha Munizzi from state15 on GodTube.