The wilderness..

                All of these women were followers of Jesus and were more than happy to talk with me about Christ. They were all down and really needed encouragement. So, we decided we would just have a good ole bible study and she was God had to say to us through his word. God decided to speak not only to Lucy, Grace, and Philomena, but to me and the chaplain who stopped by as well. We first opened our bibles up to Psalms and Philomena shared her favorite Psalms with us. I then showed her mine which is Psalms 91.I have read this everyday since coming to Kenya and  I have posted it below.

My Refuge and My Fortress

                He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

                I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I Trust.”

                For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a      shield and a buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday

                A thousand may fall at your side; ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

                You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked.

                Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place- the Most High, who is my refuge-

                no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

For He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

After reading this Psalm I turned to Isaiah 43: 1-4

Israel’s Only Savior

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you , O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ” Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they should not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord you God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Saba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I LOVE YOU, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

This then lead to the question. Why do we suffer? Why do we endure pain? Why do we have to see the ones we love hurt? At this time the Chaplain had come in and led us to Deuteronomy Chapter 8:1-10

Remember the Lord Your God

“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in you heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barely, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

According to Deuteronomy we go through a wilderness sometimes to be humbled, to check to see how our hearts really are towards God. Maybe we have to go through a little suffering to see the power of God, To see God’s mercy and grace. God’s ways aren’t our ways and his thoughts definitely are not our thoughts. Maybe we have to endure pain and hardships sometimes to test our faith, to test what is really in our hearts. If life was just easy and pain free, how could we ever begin to feel a tiny bit of God’s love for us. Maybe we feel pain sometimes just so we can catch a glimpse of what it felt like to be nailed to a cross. Nothing we endure can ever begin to compare to what Jesus felt during his crucifixion. Maybe we should turn around what the devil uses for evil and let God take over and use it for good and his Glory. No matter what we go through and no matter what we endure on this earth, God will never leave us or forsake us. This life is temporary, and our sufferings are temporary. God has a place for us in eternity with Jesus Christ our Savior. Life is hard and can be crippling at times, but this is a truth we must never let go of.

“For I consider the suffering of this present time not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us” Romans 8:18

No matter what problems life brings…

We can never lose hope because the Hope of Jesus Christ is before us.

We can never lose heart because the Heart of Jesus Christ is within us.