“Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ”˜Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.” (John 12:27-28a, NLT)
“As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.
Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness … You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.”
(Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, June 25)
Photo by Jacalyn Beales on Unsplash
Today I am joining … Scripture & a Snapshot and Sunday Scripture Blessings and Selah .
This is a completely unselfish and God centered posture, and one I need to learn. I am afraid that I spend mostof my time in trouble trying to figure out how to get out of it rather than focusing on how my situation can bless someone else.
Trouble definitely reveals to me how self-absorbed I can be. I love being comfortable, not tried or refined. God help me!
Fighting out of sorrow or bad times is extremely hard to do, and there are times I do not even want to pray or even open the Bible and read to be reminded, but after a bit, his peace does help with that. Seems I have to fight my human emotions, and maybe Jesus did too as a human here on earth, but then it was there, he was doing a glory. Praying I can remember to be a glory. Great reminder scripture for this Sunday.
While I don’t wish anguish on anyone, it is a comfort to me that Jesus experienced it in regard to what was coming, here and in Gethsemane. I usually want out of a troublesome situation, but sometimes the only way out is through.
The second paragraph reminds me of Joni Eareckson Tada. God has so refined her through her trials. We can generally trust what she says because she’s been through the fire and is not just speaking in theory. And the last line reminds me of something Elisabeth Elliot said, that sometimes our trials are for other people.
Your post is so true. It has been through challenges, losses and pain that I have grown the most, that my empathy has grown and my judgement of others has shrunk. Our pain lead to humility and compassion, as well as hope. It is when we are weak, that He is strong. Blessings to you!