I’ve just messaged a woman who I’ve never met in my life. I found her on Facebook. I’ve had trials in my life, but nothing like her.
I only know what I know about her from what I’ve read in the newspaper over the last five years since her life was completely altered.
For five years I’ve thought about her. I would say the most prominent times are when I’m having my quiet time, reading my Bible or listening to sermons in church.
I think of her when anything/anyone is telling me how God uses everything for good if we just trust him, even the toughest of trials.
Just today I read a whole chapter about how I only see a small tidbit of what’s happening so it is easy to think God isn’t listening or working. But in truth, He is always working and joy will come if we just wait and trust him.
I wonder if this woman would agree with that.
I’ve had some tough things in life but nothing close to what she has had and is going through. So when I read these things I wonder if she would say that she can see the truth in these statements.
It’s been five years. Can she say that she has actually seen GOOD that has come from her devastating tragedy????
And I can speak for myself right now and say I believe those things are true about God and I can give you examples of where I’ve seen it in my own life. And I hope I’m locking in these lessons for future trials.
But.
But then I wonder…
What if my future trial is similar to what this woman has gone through?
Even then?
Will these lessons hold for even those trials should they come my way?
I think I actually have ached to speak to this woman. For years. To ask if she has hope. What gets her through a day? What truths does she cling to?
And I’m hoping her answers would be such that I can walk away thinking, “Ok. If she can say that and believe that then so can I. Even if I end up in her nightmare.”
But I won’t know her answers. They aren’t mine to know. And there are countless others like hers.
Who knows? Maybe someone looks at the trials that I went through and wonders how I could still say God is good through all of that…
I guess we can worry and live in fear that
our faith MIGHT not hold up one day.
But if we do that, though,
our faith is already failing.
We must just be proactive and fill ourselves up with all of these truths…memorize them. Read how it has been true for others in their trials and tragedies. And then trust God that all of this strength training will pay off.
Trust God that, when the days come where we can’t mentally and spiritually workout and build our strength because tragedy has taken over, that we will have built enough of a base to carry us through those crushing times until we can get back to the ‘gym’ and rebuild where we’ve surely been depleted.
I read the most beautiful verses today. I’ve read them before but never in this way. These need to be a part of my strength training. I need to memorize them and cling to their promises.
All part of getting ready for the next trial coming my way.
20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come;
but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish
because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
22 So with you: Now is your time of grief,
but
I will see you again and
you will rejoice,
and no one will take away your joy.
John 16:20-22
I’d Love to know…
Has your faith remained through trials? How did/do you hang on to it? What keeps you going every day? Do you worry about your faith being strong enough the next time trials come?