LAMENTATIONS 3:22

Sometimes I must confess that we as Christians like to fantasize and romanticize about life and pretend that when we come to know Jesus all our troubles and trials disappear. However, that isn’t true! Sometimes it gets more difficult. To the contrary, Jesus specifically cautioned us. He plainly told us “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We must underline and underscore “. . . be of good cheer . . .” It is indeed difficult, the things that we must go through sometimes daily but unlike the world, we have the promise of His presence, and His abiding promised hope and help.

I also know that we as Christians often sing “Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before,” but I do seriously wonder. I contend some days are really not sweeter. I remember when my closest brother was stricken with Aids thirty years ago and I had to stand over his casket and preach his funeral when my own heart was racing and broken in so many places. It was not sweet! Like you I’ve had many dark and difficult days, days when I can hardly breathe, feeling as if my very life was being squeezed out of me, bordering on panic, despair and pandemonium. Life just refused to cooperate and behave.  .

It happens to all of us. We can all speak from our own experiences – Sickness, suffering, accidents, disappointments, the death of a precious loved one, heartaches, reversals of fortunes, misfortunes, old age, decrease and decline come to all of us. Life is difficult! Sooner or later, we come to this sobering reality and realization.

Things get unduly rough, but I must share with you another most brilliant revelation presented in the Word of Life – God is merciful! This helps to counteract all the difficulties that we must face on a persistent basis. We must never lose sight of this enduring and endearing fact – “The Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100:5). The prophet Jeremiah testifies to this fact even in his lamentations declaring, “It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22,23). What a blessed consolation for the saints!

No matter what you are facing today, let me unequivocally declare “And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you…” (Isaiah 30:18). As you face that diagnosis, as you endure that fiery trial, as you suffer almost interminably, as pain wrecks your body, and your world seems to be falling apart – Always remember that the Lord is merciful. The apostle Paul reminded us of this by saying with great intensity “. . . What persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me” (2 Timothy 3:11). God in His mercy walks this vale with us. Life is difficult but God is merciful!

Leroy V. Greenaway