Draw Near (Daily Encouragement Series)
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. -James 4:8
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. -Psalm 34:18
These are two passages that I continually point people to in times of their suffering. With my mom struggling in the fight with the Coronavirus, I have pointing myself and clinging to them more than ever.
While we often want to know the why of suffering, or have the ability to make suffering just go away, or something to do to fix it and make it turn into something good, we just don’t have that sort of knowledge or power. The Scriptures do give us something to do that brings “immense comfort”: draw near to God. “Believing in the goodness of God rescues us from despair and cynical unbelief.”
Read the following excerpt where this is expounded:
“Brenning Manning wrote, “Suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God.” We fear these words are more true than we might like.
The mystery is deep and befuddling. But in the middle of our particular maladies, whether physical, physiological, or emotional, it can give us immense comfort—believing the goodness of God rescues us from despair and cynical unbelief.
We know ourselves. We wouldn’t have chosen this route. But it turns out we crave intimacy with our entire beings. So God allows for our sorrows to not be wasted. Our suffering is not in vain.
Oh our God, please allow this confusing loss, pain, and grief to allow exactly the intimacy the scriptures say it will. Only You could figure out such a thing. Only You could take what feels like death and breathe life into it.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” – James 1:2-4