"The Need for Negative" by Sarah Moorhead

I can't see what the future holds, but I believe God is up to good in my life.  And if for a moment He pulled back the curtain and showed me all the good things He has planned for me, how would my perspective change? How would I respond to the negative circumstances? What if I could see my life from God's point of view? What if I understood the need for the negative?

I wonder if we knew all the marvelous things God has planned for us, if we could see what He is setting us free from – the “sin that so easily entangles” – what would we do with that information? Would we view life differently? Would we be more willing to let go of that attitude or behavior that is “killing” us? Would we stop playing the martyr or the victim? Would we stop listening to the lies of our culture – a culture that is at war with God?

In 1st Corinthians 2:4 Paul says, “However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.’"

Later in Romans 8:18 he says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

Even Job knew this truth. He spoke of his faith early in his suffering in Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him...”

To see with the eyes of faith in the midst of suffering, to hold onto the truth that God is good, takes a strength that only God can give. We cannot conjure it on our own. Our strength will fail. But the “God of all comfort” will never fail. I believe God is up to something wonderful in my life!

The Weaver - by B. M. Franklin

My life is just a weaving

Between my Lord and me.

I cannot change the color

For He works most steadily.

 

Oft times He weaves the sorrow

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper

And I the underside

 

Until the loom is silent

And the shuttle cease to fly

Will God roll back the canvas

And explain the reason why

 

The dark threads are as needful

In the skillful Weaver's Hand

As the golden threads of silver

He has patterned in His Plan.

 

2nd Corinthians 1:3-5

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
 
Hebrews 12:1

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”