No, this is not scripture. But it sure could be, and I kind of wish it was.

 

This was a word to Sue, my wife, this morning in our prayer time together. And its profoundness remains with me.

 

What a difference it makes how we look at life each day. Our lens affects much.

 

What is it then that we see before us on awaking? Is it just another day? Is it the routine? Is it the challenges looming, and the hard things unresolved in relationship and circumstance? Is it the deadlines to be met—that perhaps can’t be met?

 

What if rather we see each day as the gift that it truly is from the hand of God, instead of in terms of the obligations and obstacles charged to our responsibility and care?

 

Our God is good to us who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose. Our life in Christ is based in covenantal promise, as we recently talked about. And a promise is about a gift.

 

So what is it that God wants to give us today in the unfolding of His destiny promise?

 

To help us, the Father would have us also know that pain, which we experience much, is often the gift unwrapped in disguise. Is it possible to embrace the pain as a gift, and then to see beyond the pain to the gift’s joy awaiting?

 

The Lord will not leave us in pain forever. But we must come to see pain to be as much God’s gift as the experiential goodness for which we long. The goodness and mercy in the land of the living will overtake us soon enough, and someday never to depart. “And He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

 

There is always pain in the promise. Abraham experienced great pain in his course of promise. So we should “not think it strange” (as Peter said) that we should also. But it helps immensely if we find the grace to recognize the pain as part of the unfolding promise, and not contrary to it.

 

There is a time and place for the rejection of pain and suffering. There is a time for war, for casting out sicknesses and demons, and for demonstrating authority that destroys the pain inducing works of the devil. But discerning the embrace of pain in its season for the fruitful purpose of the promise will lead us more quickly to the experiential goodness of reward and fulfilment for our patient waiting. This calls for wisdom.

 

There are many things I don’t like about where my life is at today. There are many things I don’t like about the state of many of my relationships and my circumstances. But these things do not nullify the gift and the promise. They are part of the promise and lead us to its full realization.

 

The unique pain encountered in the prophetic wilderness carries its own beauty. There is beauty in the desert, even in the symmetry of endless sand dunes. And if we are enabled to see through to the beauty rather than to resist the empty and futile monotony, how much more quickly might the season of the painful experience pass from us? Again, our lens could affect much.

 

So I close by saying,

 

Thank you, Father, for your gift of today. Thank you for unwrapping it in each moment. Thank you for the perceiving that the negative moments belong as much to this day’s Promise, and need not hold me back from expecting your imminent positive fulfilment in all things at all levels. By Your grace I am able to say, Thank you for today’s gifted painful moments, as they unfold into Your lasting moments of beauty.

 

Love,

 

Your Son

First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

11/15

BACK TO TOP