I guess here's the major difference between the life of a Saint, and the life of an unbeliever...In spite of it all, in spite of the pain the Saint endures, the hurt, the misfortune that befalls the Saint, the trauma, the disappointment, the aches, the hardship, the losses, the humiliation, the misfortune, the abuse, the weariness, the setbacks, the pitfalls, the rejection, the suffering, the sicknesses, the fights, the battles, the wars, the tears, the tears, and more tears...
in spite of all this --
There still remains a reason to Hope...
To see beyond darkness and into the Light -- that Marvelous Light.
In the midst of all that I go through, I cannot help but see God waving, beckoning me forward, gently nudging me on. I cannot help but see His Light shining. And I hear Him saying, "You can do it, Michele; You can do it." Why, His faith in me is greater than my own faith in Him!!!
I cannot help but lift my head and keep moving because like a magnet I am drawn upwards to Heaven.
My eyes have seen the glory of His coming!
I cannot help but see something much more than what my physical eye pays its respects to, for the witness that I carry around is not based on a physical thing but on a spiritual connection -- it is unseen -- sometimes not even felt -- but it is there all the same. For I know the rock on which I stand is sustained by faith, endurance, power and might.
For that rock - oh, that glorious unmovable, unchanging, radiating, perfecting, sustaining and reigning rock is my hope.
And IN SPITE of my tears...
Ask Job -- they will fall...
in spite of my fatigue...
Ask Elijah-- for I do tire...
in spite of all my issues and circumstances...
I still press toward THE MARK, for...
My hope does not rest in man -- for what can he do for or even TO me?
Ha, my hope rest in Christ Jesus.
In Him, my battle is already won!
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. 2 Corinthians 4:7-12
