God.

This week has been long and it has been hard.

A friend received a cancer diagnosis and my uncle had cancer surgery just yesterday with results that weren’t as favorable as we had hoped. I have another friend whose brother-in-law is in the same fight and got a report this week that a tumor that had begun to shrink has now grown. Even as I was writing this post, I got a call that a childhood friend had taken his own life this week.

I’ve thought a lot this week about suffering.

Suffering is just inevitable. As long as we live in an imperfect, fallen, evil world, there will be suffering. Oh how I wish that we could have some sort of plastic bubble to live in to avoid it, but then we really wouldn’t be living, now would we?

Last year I spent some time memorizing 1 Peter 5:10. I memorized it out of the New Living Translation.

"In his kindness God called you to his eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation."

As I studied that scripture, I found that the coupling of two Greek words only appear in this passage. Working together they mean that after suffering, Jesus comes and makes us not only stronger in the midst of trials, but He empowers us to“become even more resolved to believe truth.” (From the Key Word Study Bible).

I'm still working this out, but at first pass, I'm thinking that our trials and struggles and suffering are not only circumstances that Jesus enables us to endure and walk through victoriously, but He strengthens us to believe Him more and more when we have to suffer and struggle in the future.

It is not just a scripture to move us to walk through our trials with God's help, but it is a promise that our going through trials WITH HIM is a BELIEVING GOD exercise to BELIEVE HIM MORE!

I wonder if anyone reading this would be able to testify to that today?

I looked back at my journal from last year when I was first memorizing this scripture and I noted that I had taken some time to listen to the Focus on the Family broadcasts from the National Day of Prayer in 2009.

I remember that Dr. Dobson took some time to play excerpts from two powerful messages that day. One was from Representative Michelle Bachmann (MN) who spoke at the celebration in Washington. Her testimony was powerful and reminded me that there really are people in Washington, D.C. who are following hard after God! And we need to be on our knees, even our faces, on their behalf -- that God will give them chances every day to make His Name famous in a town where others are trying to erase His Name entirely. I came away especially challenged to pray more and more for the remnant of God's people who are serving in public office.

The second broadcast featured just a small excerpt from Beth Moore’s message that day. The National Day of Prayer came about the time that many churches across the country were finishing up the study of Esther and I was not surprised that Beth took Esther with her to Washington that day!

I especially loved the reminder of Gabriel's story at the end of her message.

She shared that Gabriel was the child of a friend who had either autism or Down’s Syndrome. It’s been awhile since I have heard this story, so I can’t quite remember. But it was a huge accomplishment for Gabriel to write any letter much less his name and when he tried to do so, he would write the first three letters and put a period. But instead of looking like “Gab.” it looked like “God.” GOD. GOD PERIOD.

In light of 1 Peter 5:10, I believe that we can rest and fully know that our God is with us. Period.

Remember that no matter what is happening in our world corporately or your world personally...

GOD...period.

GOD.

GOD.

Blessings,
Dori