I May, If I Will, Accept

I've read a dozen books in the last six weeks - books on grieving a suicide, mental illness and how the church can offer support and help, a couple of Dick Francis novels when I just needed to escape and my favorites: These Strange Ashes and Secure in the Everlasting Arms by Elisabeth Elliot. Elisabeth Elliot, whose husband, Jim, was murdered by a savage tribe in Ecuador, has mentored me from afar for more than 40 years. I owe my deepest, most transformative lessons on trusting God to her steadfast, passionate pursuit of a God who often offers no explanations or answers - at least not the kind that easily satisfy my very human questions.

She writes: "Each separate experience of individual stripping we may learn to accept as a fragment of the suffering Christ bore when He took it all. 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' This grief, this sorrow, this total loss that empties my hands and breaks my heart, I may, if I will, accept, and by accepting it, I find in my hands something to offer. And so I give it back to Him, who in mysterious exchange gives Himself to me."

Thanking God tonight for others like Elisabeth who have walked sorrows' path and left encouraging signposts for those of us following behind.

Prayer in the Night

Nights are hard for us - it's easy to forget all of God's powerful promises in the darkness. So wherever you are in the world at this moment - whether in bright sunshine, gray clouds, or the cloudless hours of the night - God's Word to us is real... it's true... it's reliable... it is our HOPE.

"With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." Mark 10:27

Pray this with me:

"Father, there are circumstances that are threatening my faith, my stability, my hope for healing, hope for better days. Your Word says that nothing is impossible with You - so I bring ________ to you right now - and I ask for You - the Impossibility-Defeating God of the Universe to do what no one else can do. Release the prisoner. Heal the sick. Revive the depressed. Renew hope. Bring back the smile. Comfort the broken. Befriend the lonely. Sustain those in terrible physical pain. Hear our cries for mercy. Unleash those bound by forces beyond their ability to cope. Help us long for Heaven while living fully here and now. Open our hearts to all who grieve. I TRUST YOU. In Jesus' name - the name I love above all others - Amen."