Dear Father,
Why is it that we have to go through trials to be brought closer to you? Why can’t our hearts just always seek to find their rest in you so that when the storms do come, we can be at peace? Lord, it grieves us when we are tested and find our faith doesn’t hold as fast to you as we thought it would. Why is it hard sometimes to trust your sovereignty? Why can’t we just surrender? Lord, please so inhabit our lives that we feel our desperate need of you when we both wake up and lie down. “Be our arm every morning and our salvation in the time of trouble” (Is. 33:2). We have no reason not to trust you, for you promise never to leave us nor forsake us (Josh. 1:5, Heb. 13:5), and you are “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Help us to believe your promises, for they all find their Yes in you (2 Cor. 1:20).
Dear Lord, make it our desire to be drawn closer to you, to be more like you. We know that we cannot become more like you if we do not undergo trials. You yourself underwent the worst of trials. Help us then to “count it all joy” (James 1:2). Write upon our hearts that these light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor. 4:17). Remember our tears. Strip us of our idols. Cause your love to so shine on us that we not only feel your love, but also have hearts that overflow in praise and service to you. Come and meet us where we are in our sin and unbelief, and help us. Pick us up, carry us, and help us to stand in you. May we constantly cling to your cross. Help us to live that Jesus really did pay it all, and that all we have now is to believe and surrender.
Thank you that you supply us with a peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7). Give us that peace. We need it. We cannot live without it. Thank you that none who wait for you will be put to shame, indeed, those who wait for you shall renew their strength (Is. 40:31). May your steadfast love be upon us, even as we hope in you (Ps. 33:22). May our restless hearts find their rest in you. Keep us longing for our eternal home, the city that cannot be shaken, the city that “has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23). Make us heaven-minded people, always remembering that we are strangers in this world, “waiting for a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). May you receive all the glory in all we do…in Jesus’ name.
If ever I loved thee, my Jesus ‘tis now.
Forever in your love,
Mary Margaret
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