| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 3 |
Page 6 |
“God draws a cloud over each gleaming morn;
Would we ask why?
It is because all noblest things are born
In agony.
“Only upon some cross of pain or woe
God’s son may lie;
Each soul redeemed from self and sin must know
Its Calvary.
“Yet we must crave neither for joy nor grief,
God chooses best:
He only knows our sick soul’s best relief,
And gives us rest.”
There is a quite common misconception regarding answers to prayer, a misconception which would be corrected if we understood better the meaning of trouble as it comes into our life. In our time of suffering or sorrow we cry to God for relief, asking Him to take away that which is so hard for us to endure. We do not remember that this very trial is a messenger of good from God to us. When we ask our Father to free us from the painful experience, we do not realize that we are really asking Him to recall an angel of mercy who has come with rich gifts in his hands for us.
What should our prayer be in such a case? There is no harm in our asking even earnestly and importunately that the suffering may pass, but we should always ask reverently, leaving it to God to decide what is best. Then the prayer should be that if the trouble is not taken away we may be strengthened to endure it and may not fail to receive its blessing. This is the promise, indeed, that is made. We are not told that God will either remove our burden or carry it for us. If there is a benediction in it for us, it would not be a kindness to life it off. The assurance is, however, that He will sustain us as we bear our load. This may disappoint some who turn to God with their trouble, thinking only of relief from it. But when we remember that God has a design in the trouble, a loving purpose, we know we cannot afford to lose it. To be freed from it would be to miss the good that is in it for us. We grow best under weights. So in love and wisdom God leaves the load on our shoulder that we may still carry it and get through it the gift which He sends us in it. He then gives us strength to bear it – strengthens us under its weight.
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