Surely I Am With You

As I prepared this morning for my Sunday School Easter lesson, I reviewed The Great Commission recorded in Matthew 28.  When we face trials of many kinds, be they illness, grief of loss, financial hardship, parenting struggles, job difficulties, relationship issues, and numerous other challenges of daily life, what is the path to peace, joy, hope, and love?  How do we find peace despite these difficulties?  How do we find the path to joy and hope?  How do we look beyond ourselves and our circumstances to the higher reality of all that is and all that will be?  How do we put our struggle into proper perspective of God and His power in our lives?  The answer is summed up beautifully in Matthew 28:20b:

“And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

He is with you in your sorrow.

He is with you in your loss.

He is with you in your trials, your struggles, and your grief.

He is with you when you succeed, and he is with you when you fail.

Rejoice, for He is risen!!

The Futility of Worry

This past week, I entered the weekend still awaiting the result from my mom’s CT scan.  My mom’s clinical presentation of persisting pelvic pain, weight loss, and recent stroke was highly suspicious for advanced cancer.  I know this with the thinking, doctor part of my brain.  I kept a packed suitcase in my car for several days while we awaited the results.  I am grateful to report that her CT came out fine, and we are still working out the mystery of her pelvic pain.  Yet during these days of waiting I slept well at night with this scripture tucked in my heart from Matthew Chapter 7:

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your live, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear?  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap, or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”

Should we prayerfully make smart decisions?  Yes

Should we communicate these changes and ask others for prayer and advice?  Yes

Should we make prayer-inspired plans?  Yes

Should we worry?  We should not worry!

I do not know what you may be going through personally right now.  These problems are big to us, yet our God is much bigger.  He cares for you, and He loves you.  He will get you through your struggle.