We have murmured that we have prayed and did not receive. We have given generously and we are not in adversity. We were faithful to attend the worship services regularly, but landed in a hospital anyway. We have craved joy and peace, but now we are despondent.
Across the street is an ungodly family that has suffered no loss, while our dearest was taken or has suffered greatly. We are tempted to say, “There doesn’t seem to be any use in praying. It reads well in the devotional books, but I seem unable to make it work.” We were in distress and the Lord abode where he was and when He did appear, we grumbled like Martha when she said, “If you had been here my brother would not have died” (John 11:21).
All such grumbling means that we have not learned the forgotten beatitude. Anyone can believe during fair weather. There is a deeper experience and a higher state which not many reach, a state in which, no matter what happens, we are never offended in the Lord, a state in which, whether it makes sense to us or not, we still believe the text in Romans 8:28.
Habakkuk started his book pouting (Habakkuk 1:1-4) and ended it praise (Habakkuk 3:17-19). And blessed Is the man who can say: “Though I don’t get what I want, though I may sow much and reap little, though others get the plums and I get the sack, I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
When Thomas asked for visible evidence of the risen Lord, he was asking for a smaller blessing than he already had — the privilege of believing without seeing, for “blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
Brethren, God wants us to trust Him, no matter what He does. There is a heavenly carelessness that leaves it all with Jesus and doesn’t get upset when He does things contrary to what we expected. —Vance Havner
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
Across the street is an ungodly family that has suffered no loss, while our dearest was taken or has suffered greatly. We are tempted to say, “There doesn’t seem to be any use in praying. It reads well in the devotional books, but I seem unable to make it work.” We were in distress and the Lord abode where he was and when He did appear, we grumbled like Martha when she said, “If you had been here my brother would not have died” (John 11:21).All such grumbling means that we have not learned the forgotten beatitude. Anyone can believe during fair weather. There is a deeper experience and a higher state which not many reach, a state in which, no matter what happens, we are never offended in the Lord, a state in which, whether it makes sense to us or not, we still believe the text in Romans 8:28.
Habakkuk started his book pouting (Habakkuk 1:1-4) and ended it praise (Habakkuk 3:17-19). And blessed Is the man who can say: “Though I don’t get what I want, though I may sow much and reap little, though others get the plums and I get the sack, I will rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
When Thomas asked for visible evidence of the risen Lord, he was asking for a smaller blessing than he already had — the privilege of believing without seeing, for “blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
Brethren, God wants us to trust Him, no matter what He does. There is a heavenly carelessness that leaves it all with Jesus and doesn’t get upset when He does things contrary to what we expected. —Vance Havner
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
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