Thankful for the Thorns

In a place of hurting, mourning over the loss of innocent lives, where do we turn? Where do we find our answers? Where do we seek our comfort? The mindset is so radical, so "out of the ordinary"... to be thankful for the moments of difficulty (the "thorns" that lead up to the rosebud). I find myself asking God about the outcome of things. Wanting answers way before their timing. I ask questions like, "What will life be like after this situation passes?" or "What good is this doing for me to have to go through this now? Why now?" Some of those questions never really get answered, but the lessons are still learned. The thorns allow me to learn. These moments that bring tears to my eyes allow me the opportunity to thank God. As I type this, my heart aches. For all of those who are hurting and whose hearts feel no beat. I ache as I sit here and remind myself that now is the time to be thankful. Now is the time to truly glorify God for who He is. In the midst of the pain and suffering. Now is not the time to ask all the questions that may never get answered, now is the time to reflect of God's goodness and offer Him our praise. It's a difficult task. But one that we must try to carry on.

I have been so blessed by our school's theme for the year: Gratitude. For in everything we are to be thankful, not only in the good, but in the struggles as well. This is one of them. A struggle to look at the positive when everything seems to be in the negative. The act of being thankful for the thorns. It's a change of heart for sure. A conscious decision to shift focus. Away from self and towards our Creator. How radical is that. I just hope that if trauma ever hits me closer to home than I'd ever want, that I would be prepared to offer thanksgiving to God and not condemn Him. Now is the time. In everything, offer thanksgiving.

Thankful for the Thorns

 

"Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).

 

The literal translation of this verse gives a startling emphasis to it, and makes it speak for itself with a force that we have probably never realized. Here It is: "Therefore I take pleasure in being without strength, in insults, in being pinched, in being chased about, in being cooped up in a corner for Christ's sake; for when I am without strength, then am I dynamite."

 

Here is the secret of Divine all-sufficiency, to come to the end of everything in ourselves and in our circumstances. When we reach this place, we will stop asking for sympathy because of our hard situation or bad treatment, for we will recognize these things as the very conditions of our blessing, and we will turn from them to God and find in them a claim upon Him. --A. B. Simpson

 

***

 

George Matheson, the well-known blind preacher of Scotland, who recently went to be with the Lord, said: "My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.

 

"Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows."

 

"Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through the cypress trees."

FROM: http://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/desert/  Day: 15DEC2012