On Blessings...

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I heard a song a while back. The words are given below. And it got me thinking.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights 
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

-          Laura Story

So, what if trials of this life, the rain, the storm, the hardest nights are His mercies in disguise? It’s an answer, to the all consuming question – why - of course. But, it doesn’t reconcile itself with our finite understanding of His “goodness”. Job said, “We take the good days from God – why not also the bad days?”*

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating a maudlin enjoyment of pain, or a resigned, passive acceptance, but rather, a choice. A choice to see life from a different perspective. God never assured us that life would be fair on earth. But He did promise His abiding presence, through every situation that came our way. And since I know He works all things together for my good, I can rest in the assurance that he can transform the trials of this life into His mercies.

* Job 2:10 (The Message)

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