{"id":473,"date":"2012-01-18T19:14:11","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T00:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etheriedge.wordpress.com\/?p=473"},"modified":"2020-10-02T14:00:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T18:00:47","slug":"this-slight-distress-of-the-passing-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forglorysake.com\/index.php\/2012\/01\/18\/this-slight-distress-of-the-passing-hour\/","title":{"rendered":"This Slight Distress of the Passing Hour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever think,\u00a0this is just NOT what I signed up for?<\/em>\u00a0Elisabeth Elliot tells a funny story in one of her books about a lady missionary getting bumped off of a cart onto the road as she traveled about on business God had called her to do. She sat there in the mud and told God, “If this is the way You treat Your friends, then it’s no wonder You don’t have more…”<\/em><\/p>\n

I love that story, but\u00a0I’m not sure I always laugh off times like that as a slight<\/em> distress! It’s frustrating to purpose to step out and do what God has asked, only to get knocked on your keister: A child with addiction issues? Now in outpatient? Really?? We feel so lost, so alone, so stupid. What more can happen?<\/p>\n

“17<\/sup>For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!],”\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>2 Cor. 4:17 Amplified Bible<\/p>\n

Here again in modern English:
“These hard times are small potatoes<\/strong> compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.” <\/strong><\/em>2 Cor. 4:17 The Message<\/p>\n

I got it, it’s not about what I see, but all about what I don’t<\/em> see.\u00a0Nancy Leigh DeMoss puts it:<\/strong>\u00a0“There\u2019s a wonderful truth that\u2019s sometimes hard for us to grasp. That is that God doesn\u2019t make any mistakes<\/strong>.\u00a0Other people sometimes may make serious mistakes that affect our lives. But God is always fulfilling His eternal purposes, and they can\u2019t be stopped by any human failure<\/strong>. If we\u2019re in Christ, our lives are in His hands, and nothing can touch us that hasn\u2019t first been filtered through His fingers of love.”<\/em><\/p>\n

O Father, help me to dwell on this truth as I sit here in the mud wondering what in this world You are up to. Either way, You are my God and I will stay forever, Your friend.<\/em><\/p>\n

ForGlorySake!<\/strong> – Anna<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n