Thursday, February 4, 2021
God’s Light, God’s Love!
Everything in Us, and Among Us
Especially our Brokenness Points to
God’s Light, God’s Love
Psalm 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord rescues them from them all.
2 Corinthians 1:5
For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.
Words of Grace For Today
For God’s people there are abundant sufferings matched by abundant consolations; the righteous suffer many afflictions and the Lord saves us from all the afflictions.
Covid 19 is not the only source of suffering for so many people this year.
Even before Covid 19 there were all sorts of sources for suffering that disrupted lives, ruined lives, falsely jailed innocent people, disappeared people, and even killed people.
For every suffering that we have known, God provides us a consolation. Therefore we can hope that even in our time God’s desire for all people will be realized. God’s desire is that all people will come to know God’s Grace and Justice (as Martin Luther King Jr called it: a double victory). For even people who work terribly against God, God wishes (and with a wish makes it to be so) that they know life as blessed by God and enjoy the benefits, challenges, sufferings and consolations that God provides to each and every saint.
We remain sinners and we are also God-made saints, completely, wholly and simultaneously.
Afflictions from within ourselves and outside ourselves, and to match each affliction we receive consolations.
…
Why then do we continue to suffer, day after day, year after year, and decade after decade?
Our time is simply not God’s time. We are so blessed to enjoy God’s blessings … and we remain alive in this world, still broken humans in a broken world, able though to share God’s blessings with all people.
Ours is not to ask when God will convert our enemies and persecutors into saints. Ours is to live lives as God’s saints, able to know God’s Light and Love because we are so broken, and able to bring God’s Light and Love to bear on life for so many people … as we wait for God’s desire to be fulfilled in our time.