“If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” {Ecclesiastes 4:10}
United we stand, united we fall, and united we remain through it all—because that’s Christ in us.
Beloved, this is agony some days, but God knows what he is doing even when we don’t. Don’t lose sight of eternity when the minutes seem to last for months. We are weak and broken vessels, but these jars of clay the Father cups into his hands and holds close to his holy heart. The days we feel like the least, we are the most exalted; the days we feel like the lost, the most found; the days we feel like the weak, the most strong. It makes no sense by human wisdom, but in God’s economy this is the way to glory.
“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,” {2 Corinthians 4:17}
Ed Welch writes, “When we get God’s story right, our suffering confirms that we belong to him; it does not mean that he is distant and unresponsive. Suffering is a time when he is most obviously at work, and our spiritual task is to turn to him rather than try and manage our world our own way.” This is the nature of the task we are to accomplish together through Christ in us. We think we must wrestle with God for blessing like Jacob did long ago, not realizing that the kingdom is already ours—we need not struggle for it anymore. Instead, we are called to fight not for blessing, but for the glory of the One who by grace has made his reward our inheritance.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” {Romans 12:1}
For the man who loves a broken mind, take courage. The Lord has not called you to heal, he has called you to love.
You have a front row seat to the pixels of pain in our picture, but Jesus sees the whole of the canvas. He knows the shades and the strokes and what it takes to brush together our masterpiece. Up close, it cannot be appreciated for what it is to be—a color here, a blend over there, a splash of paint thinner to dilute the opacity down. These things make no sense without the perspective of the whole. Only the Painter, who has meticulously planned the process of creating this portrait, can make full sense of the method of his skill. The brush strokes lay eagerly in anticipation for the work to be complete, that they may finally see what the wait was all about.
Henri Nouwen wrote, “When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.” Beloved and friend, we cannot imagine what we will become as we are pressed in this way, but we do know where it is leading. We may not always feel it, see it, or believe it, but together we wait on Him. In all of our brokenness, he is accomplishing his purposes for us, in us, and through us. One flesh. One Love. One Image. One glory—because that’s Christ in us.
“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. We are pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” {2 Corinthians 4:7-11}
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This article originally appeared at FaithfulSparrow.com.
