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.”

Back in the early sixties I was attending the United States Air Force Officer’s Training School in San Antonio, Texas. Many of those of us who were married had our families staying near us in a facility called Billy Mitchell Village.

Late one evening I had an emergency call that our oldest daughter, Brenda, who was eight at the time, had an extremely high temperature of 104-105. I rushed to the hospital to be with her. After trying other methods to lower her temperature, they took her into the emergency room where there was a large stainless steel tub filled with water and buckets of ice.   

It broke my heart to stand beside her shivering little body as she cried and pleaded with me to make the pain go away. Oh, how I wished I could trade places with her and free her of the agony she was enduring. I couldn’t! She had to endure the agony in order to get well!

Everyday my inbox is filled with people who are hurting and feel stuck in intolerable situations. As I pray and respond as best I know how, I am struck with how many times across the years I have had people pour out their hearts to me and beg for relief from their pain.

I am not sure when it started, but the Lord gave me a ministry of Christian counseling. I have served both professionally, but most often voluntarily, as a counselor. Either way I have found that most of the time (actually, all of the time) I do not have the answers.

So what can I do? How can I give hope to those of you who are passing through the valley of the shadow of death? There are those who glibly dispense spiritual candy, but it eventually turns bitter when results are not seen.

Over the years and after much prayer, I offer the following verses to any who are in that blind alley of life that seems to have no exit. Psalm 139:1-4: “O LORD, You have searched me and You know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O LORD.”  I don’t know what it says to you, but it tells me that God knows what I am going through so it is not necessary to give Him a status report on my condition. I just need to ask that He will show me how I can live a victorious life in the midst of the storm.

The second passage is in James 1:2-8: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.”

There you are! I challenge you to apply these two passages to the impossible situations you are experiencing now or will experience in the future. Not only is God able to meet your need, He wants to supply all of your needs 

Blessings dear hearts. Draw near to God today, trust Him completely and be a blessing!

- – - Pastor Cecil