Be encouraged in your losses when you feel all hope is lost

Why should I complain of want or distress,
Temptation or pain? He told me no less;
The heirs of salvation I know from his word,
Through much tribulation must follow their Lord. [John Newton]

A dear friend just posted this lovely reminder, that those who call Jesus their Lord will often face misfortune after trial after distress after suffering and loneliness.

This is a fact of our faith: it is by far the imperative of life to do the right thing than worry about life treating you right.  This is why Daniel’s three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego encourage us as they enter the promised fire... “even if God does not save us, we will not bow down to your idols.”  (Daniel 3:16-18)

This is something that only the true faithful get about the life that suffers: if we suffer for good, in that we make of our plight what we can without going the wrong way, the Lord promises to come close.

And when the Lord comes close — in that very instant — we recognise we’ve come closer than ever to the abundant eternal life of God’s very real Presence.

It’s like this: in losses and hardships and toil and snare, especially when we’re tossed on the rubbish heap of life, when many would call us a loser, even as we continue to do the right thing, we’re sowing up for ourselves crowns in the heavenly realms.

Understand, we will never see them in this life.  That’s the point.  We’re laying up for ourselves spoil that can never be spoiled.

We know all this by the deposit of a foretaste of the Presence as God comes close when all have scurried away.  So take heart when loneliness is the reward for doing the right thing.

Of course, we always need to search our hearts in that place of communion with the Lord.  But we know we’re right and called holy when our despondency is met with an acceptance, the knowledge that this isn’t all there is.  There is so much more coming that we cannot even see.

The world thinks it’s got the market corner squared away on life.  Couldn’t be further from reality.

In your losses, in your loneliness, in your languishing moment, know afresh that far from anything at all, God has not forgotten you, even as God is preparing a greater purpose and prize for you than you could ever imagine.

It is well.

Photo by joseph d'mello on Unsplash