Faith can sit down before mysteries and say 'The Lord is good'.
(From the book Consolation by Mrs. Chas. E. Cowman)
'Our grief can never be greater than God's.'
(from my oldest sister who called this morning)
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God,
a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
2 Tim.2:15
Right now I believe many in our church family feel
utterly heartbroken, leaving nothing remaining but
to entrust our broken pieces to the Hands of the Potter/Healer!
Oh Lord, your ways are not our ways...
Then search and know our hearts;
Try and know our anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in us,
And lead us in the way everlasting.
(Ps.139:23-24)
The ways that we would orchestrate through fancy's earth-dimmed lures
Would oft serve to alleviate what faith alone endures
Because we cannot comprehend God's thoughts, misunderstood
Or how He guards Want's ways that wend in conflict to our good
For though our spirit boasts of noble mind, the flesh is weak
We are not nat'rally inclined to want what we should seek
Or to be boldly unashamed to take God at His Word
The ways we want would rush untamed to ruin undeterred
God, rich in love and mercy, ordains ways beyond our ken
He guides us through Time's sin-cursed vein to victory. Amen
Our grief is His; where sorrows fret He sorrows all the more
Sometimes we are prone to forget where earth-dimmed views implore
...then, because what we suffer God has suffered too, He grants
His Comforter; a buffer against darts of Circumstance
We need you, Lord, to intercede, in ways where we would roam
Without Your rod and staff to lead us safely Home, sweet Home
Janet Martin
