I'm writing this blog today not only to whoever is reading, but mostly to myself. I need to you to know something today.
The God that I serve is no small God.
Psalm 121:2 - My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
Yet he has not forgotten us.
Isaiah 49:15 - See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
He is always thinking about us.
Psalm 139:17 - How amazing are your thoughts concerning me, God! How vast is the sum of them!
He is always concerned with what we care about.
1 Peter 5:7 - Cast all your anxiety upon him, because he cares for you.
He has given us hope.
Revelation 21:4 - He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
He has given us life.
John 10:10 - I have come that you may have life in all its fullness.
He has given us love.
1 John 4:10 - This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
He has given us freedom.
Galatians 5:1 - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
He knows very well what suffering is.
Isaiah 53:3 - He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
He can be trusted.
Hebrews 10:23 - Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
He will never leave us.
Matthew 28:20 - Surely I am always with you, even until the very end of the age.
Our God is not far off, although it may feel like it at times. He is so near. And even in times of great sadness and despair, our God will carry us, and he will be our light. Micah 7:8 - Do not gloat over me, my enemy! For though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." - CS Lewis.
Although life presents us with pain and sorrow and grief and despair, we only see a glimpse of God's greater plan. He is over and above everything. He is sovereign, he is mighty and he is strong enough to carry us and everything we're facing. "Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world." - 1 John 4:4.
He wants our everything, and not just when we feel like it.
"All of my life, in every season, you are still God. I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship."
Lastly, instead of be overcome by crippling fear, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." - Phillipans 4:6-7
