Psalm 94 (all) Especially Vs 19

"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul."

Most of the readers of this blog are accustomed to reading about miracles.  People love to read about miracles--about when God overcomes and evil is vanquished.  It's a bit like reading a fairy tale, isn't it?  Things are sad, or scary, and God comes to the rescue.  He rides in like a knight in shining armor and all ends well.  Marriages are saved, people are healed who should die, money falls from heaven.

What about when that doesn't happen?  What about when life happens and God does not save the person?  Is that still a miracle?  Is God still working?

This has been a serious question for me for months.  Sometimes, you feel like Joan of Arc of the faith...standing against the evils of the world with your soul full of belief.  Sometimes, you feel as if your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.  You feel alone.  You're in the desert of your faith.  Is God still there?

Yes, He is.  This has been a rough season for me in faith.  I have had people say to me things that didn't seem right, biblically.  It caused me to wonder--is what I believe in real?  Am I making this all up in my head after all this time?  Did Layne die because people die, or did God really take him home?   If God led me through obvious miracles to make a decision...was that for my sake for the sake of others?  Could he, WOULD he lead me to the desert?

I began to read the scriptures.  God loved the people of Israel, they are his chosen people.  He walked with many of the prophets and talked to them in ways you and I will probably never know on this side of heaven. Can you imagine?  To have a conversation with God Almighty?

Yet, let's look at what Israel has endured:  Slavery, forty years in a desert, having it's leader die before entering the Promised Land, a period of hundreds of years with NO CONTACT with God, no prophets, no whispers from heaven.  The destruction of the temple, and of course, the Holocaust and being surrounded by enemies who seek her death.

And these are God's CHOSEN ones.  So, is he here?  Is he watching Israel?  Yes! And none of this is a surprise to God.  When others abuse and use Israel, when Iran rants and raves, yet, God protects her.  She suffers, but in her suffering, she is refined.

And so it is with us.  Not every story has a happy ending, because the ending is not going to happen on this earth.  It's difficult, sometimes, life is really, really hard.  We don't understand.  We are attacked and we are mistreated--Jesus told us it would be so. Sometimes, we cause it, sometimes, there is nothing we can do to stem the storm, as it is with cancer.  But in this difficult time, God can work.  God IS working.  He's doing HIS will.  He's teaching, he's refining.  He is not impotent...though sometimes we think he is.  Sometimes, I have thought so, but yet, he has brought to me others who I can uplift and who uplift me.  That is the miracle my friends.  That is the miracle.