A Young Believer's Heartcry through a Trial
This past spring, my dear wife had a major problem with her
pregnancy. Without going into any graphic details, she ended up spending 82
days in the hosiptal ( two hours away) & delivering our daughter Mercy five
weeks early -- leading to a week in NICU.
While I worked, my older children had the burden of caring for the
littler ones, keeping the household running smoothly & doing their
homeschooling -- all while worrying about their Mom & unborn sister. In the
last five years we have had a stillbirth, a miscarriage, and another near
miss, so their concerns were well founded.
My daughter Margie Ellen -- 14 -- wrote the peice below during this time
of trial, after listening to one of her favorite songs. She is allowing me
to share this with you. -- Leslie
Praising Him in this storm
by: Ellen Riley
When hard times come we, as Christians, tend to assume that God will just,
you know, end it immediately. That is, in a way, saying that God is not
all-powerful, the God who knows what is, what has been, and what is to come.
It is saying "Hey, when God realizes that I'm in this mess, He'll be down to
stop it all. He's been so busy lately: He must not have seen this coming. I
mean, I'm a good person; this is just some sort of mistake. But boy, I'm
just waiting. In a few days, He'll see this fix I'm in and get rid of it."
Now, I know that we don't mean to say that. And I don't mean we shouldn't
pray and ask God to Please, reach down. I don't mean that at all. But God
knows where we are, and it's exactly where He wants us to be. When you
pray, don't only ask that the storm be calmed: beg God to ride it out with
you, ask Him to give you grace if it is not within His perfect will to calm
the storm right now. And don't just pray at first. We must continue to pray
through out the storm, and throughout our lives. We shouldn't just say
"Okay, I prayed when it happened. What else could You expect God? I prayed
once, I'm done now." That sounds funny, doesn't it? What could POSSIBLY be
funny about that?! No, it is not funny at all. It is wrong. God wants our
'Lifesongs', our 'Lifeprayers'. He does not need our prayers to do His will.
Okay? He does not need us. He wants us. Our God is a compassionate God.
Even if the storms of life are still raging, He is with us. Even if it's
really loud as the rain falls, He is with us; He will hear the cries of His
people (Psalm 145:18-19). Even if we're so scared, even if we walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, He's with us, His mercy surrounds us.
Depth of Mercy can there be Mercy still reserved for me? YOU BET. His mercy
ABOUNDS. He loves us, and His mercy, in a very real way, falls on us. We can
feel it if we try. It's all around us.
Why would we not praise Him, in light of that? He does take away, but He
gives as well. Even if He allows the devil to take away our jobs, our moms,
our babies, even our lives, He has gifted the far greater gift of eternal
life, and He has promised in Proverbs 10:3 that He will "not suffer the soul
of the righteous to famish, and in II Corinthians 4:17 that He worketh His
children a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. What are our sorrows
compared to His as He dies on the cross carrying all of our sins as if He,
sinless as He is, had committed them all and yet we will not give Him
praise. Listen. If we do not live lives that are completely to His glory,
than it should break our hearts. If you do not go through each day, striving
to be more like Jesus with every breath, then fall on your knees before the
Lord because you stand at His mercy always. I pray that my life will in the
future reflect what I have written here tonight. I stand at His mercy
always, and HE IS MERCIFUL. How then can we not praise Him in the calm
before the storm, and in this storm, and in the chaos following the storm?
He is my God, and I am His child. We should pray for strength to praise Him
no matter what, 'cause He is the same no matter what is going on in our
lives. He doesn't change: He changes us.
He knows when we weep. It's OK to cry. Go ahead. Even the toughest of the
tough cry inside, because we're all sin. With the fall (when we all became
sin) came the results of the fall. The results are not happy ones (sin,
death, pain.). Because of the results, because we sin, because of the fall,
we all weep. It is a hard road to perfection in Christ. We will cry.
Remember, Jesus wept as well. Still, He won't ever leave us. It is a hard
road as I have said, yet we do not travel alone nor will we be left without
a guide. He won't say "alright, that's it, you've used all your 'god-time'
for this week. I'm going home." God forbid.
All of our hearts are torn at some point: but Jesus came to heal our
wounds. We should continue to praise Him in this storm, because you know
what? Before God rescued us we didn't know which way to go. When the storms
of life came, we just sort of went in every which direction. We were lost,
lost. But He heard us, crying out for help; groaning, and travailing. He
granted us rest from our sorrows, He gave help to the helpless, and life to
sinners such as I. He pulls us up from the dust that was our former lives,
and takes us where He wants us to go. He loves us.
We cannot make it alone. Period. Without Him, we will never last this
storm. We will fall totally, and completely, down, down, down. If we don't
accept the gift He gives us (which is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our
only Lord and Savior), it's like saying that we want to die, and not just
once, but burn forever in hell. His gift is life. No man is truly convert if
he simply wishes to avoid hell. He would have the burning desire that is in
my heart, to be like my Savior my God. His gift is life. He wants our lives
to be lives of praise and adoration to our King, in the peaceful moments
when life seems so sweet, and in the storms. When it seems that we've lost
our way, and our directions have all been false, when the roads that we look
down are all dead ends, look up. We can see the way if we'll just look up to
Him! We cannot carry on without Him. But He is with all who are His. He
loves us. He is with us.
Our help comes from the All-mighty, All-holy, All-powerful Lord, which made
Heaven and earth. He will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.
-MARGIE E RILEY, INSPIRED BY MARK HALL AND CASTING CROWNS, WRITTEN AT THE
TIME OF EXTENDED TRIALDUE TO A DIFFICULT PREGNACY AND A BEAUTIFUL BUT
PRE-MATURE BABY
