By Shirley Rosemarie Evans
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10 NIV
Many of us have gone through real-life challenges since coming to faith and perhaps there are some of us who would even dare to acknowledge the storms that threatened our worlds have been so tumultuous and so overwhelming that we have even dared to ask the question: Where are you God?
Covid was the darkest time in world history that I can recall. It was during COVID-19 that I saw the church I attended hit by relentless grief as we lost half of our older members within a few short months. It was during this season that I experienced my first double funeral as a devoted husband and wife of over 60 years, long-standing members, the backbone of our local congregation both of whom passed within a few days of each other and then just two months later I experienced it again as my beloved aunt and uncle also wed for over 60 years passed less than a week apart. Yet there was grace. As a church, and a family we came together to grieve yes, but also to give thanks for the legacies left behind and to receive the outpouring of comfort that can only come from God. We were perplexed but not in despair and cast down but not destroyed. We were not alone, our God had not left us nor forsaken us.
Going further back in my life to some years before COVID-19, I went through a difficult season spanning two years starting with my marriage breaking up, debt, depression, things were spiralling, and then in the middle of all this my mother passed away. I recall travelling to Jamaica for the funeral and sitting in the dawn hours on my mother’s veranda, broken, my life seemingly in ashes. I would sit watching my mother’s morning glory flowers open. In these moments I felt such a rush of peace and love and God’s abiding presence washing over me and renewing me, reminding me that every day there is more grace, grace to carry you through and strengthen.
God’s grace does not mean that we won’t experience difficulties or that at times it won’t feel as if the very bottom has fallen out of our world. Grace means that even in these moments we can experience God’s presence and power to sustain us in unexpected ways and unexpected places. He gives us strength to go on, and as we gaze at Him, we sense His compassion, we feel His loving arms and we hear the tenderness of His voice. He does not leave us to struggle through but ensures our situations lead us to Him and in Him, we find grace to continue the journey. As we walk through the season with Him, we realize that we are being lovingly shaped by grace making us more compassionate, more tender-hearted and forgiving, so that we may be able to comfort others who are in trouble with the same comfort we ourselves received from God (2 Corinthians 1:4).
Ask: How would you answer someone who says why did God allow me to suffer like this?
Seek: Look back at a difficult season in your life, and recall God’s grace in that situation, how did this shape your experience?
Knock: Look around you, who do you know that is going through a difficult season? Commit to praying for them and ask God to show you practical ways to support them.
(Upper Photo by Danie Franco on Unsplash)
(Inner Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash)
