The Best News At The Worst Time

Many millions do not, and may not ever, get the Gospel message. They may, indeed, be much too blessed in their living circumstances to need the miraculous rest that only the Lord Jesus can provide. Others who’ve had their lives torn to shreds, though, are ripe for Divine picking:

“To be weary and heavy laden is to have the highest fitness to receive that rest which Christ alone can give.”

~William Law (1686-1761)

The wondrous reality of life is the person neediest of help is most blessedly open to receive that help that can come from the agency of God, alone.

The Lord is a safety net encompassing all situations of the living. Whenever life is at its hardest, relations with God are never easier. But we must make some definitive choices to ensure we can move closer to God, taking part in Divine rest, and not move away, sickened by life and God’s role in allowing such personal persecution.

Considerations For The Weary, Grieving, Lonely, And Spiritually Bereft

The list of those types that have been characterised above is endless. Those most blessed to be touched by stringent suffering, those feeling most assuredly cursed, may know they’ve found a place of need for God. Our Lord proves real in such a place where there is no respite besides the rest we feel in pouring out hard emotions relentlessly. This is our qualification; that life has become too much to do alone. There is the most comprehensive need for God. We cannot manage without the Lord.

Desperation is a good place to be if it finds us turning toward a miracle, as can later be seen.

When we are here, beyond scope for much reasonable thought, we must approach certain conditions that’ll see us through:

1. We don’t read too much, or fill ourselves with much knowledge. It’s more important to simply experience the rest of God, by being thoroughly honest in pouring out our emotions.

2. If we wish to learn, we read about the character of our Saviour who would scoop up the downtrodden and those suffering when he walked this earth. Jesus’ inclusive and personalised compassion we now draw upon. His Spirit is alive.

3. In our going out and coming home we should spend no time berating ourselves in self-analysis, enjoying as much as possible the ability to be gentle with ourselves, experiencing God’s unlimited grace.

4. We continue to remind ourselves that the pain of the losses we’ve experienced, and the battles that overwhelm us just now, won’t last. It’s afterwards that we understand how faithful God was in helping us through; in identifying with us.

***

Many people never hear the Gospel message because they’ve never suffered. At the ending of one life there’s the burgeoning of another, better life. Rock bottoms are not the end; they’re the beginning of a life where rest in God is possible and, found later, joyously miraculous.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.