Just click on this link to the Voice of the Martyrs website and read and pray through the scrolling screen of information. Or, click on this site or this site or this site and pray for those in Haiti and for the relief workers/missionaries tirelessly serving there.
Sweet friends, we must remember that things that overwhelm us do NOT overwhelm our Lord. Sometimes we need to take our eyes off of our own set of overwhelming circumstances and ask the Lord how He would like to use us in someone else’s overwhelming crises.
It’s not easy to do this. But if we do, we’ll be in a win-win situation… Because when we are praying for or serving someone else in the name of Jesus, they are blessed, and we become doubly blessed. Blessed once because we are being used of God in someone’s life. And blessed again because for the duration of our prayer time or service, we get a break from focusing on our own struggles.
“Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.
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!],
Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Amplified)
I love you and bless you in the Powerful Name of Jesus… Who loves you and is the All Mighty Conqueror of EVERYTHING!!!!!
We are VOM supporters; thank you for highlighting them here. So many suffering for the kingdom. What in the world do I have to complain about?
peace~elaine
Sweet Jennifer, I said a resounding AMEN to this post! How true your words are and when we do put our trials into perspective, I know I can be thankful for so much.
Most of all, I am thankful that I am never alone. My hope is in Jesus and I try to keep my eyes on Him. Of course, in my human nature I get off track at times and need to be reminded.
My heart goes out to the people of Haiti. I don't know if you knew that I went on a mission trip to Haiti in 1980. I worked as a nurse and dealt with so many babies and children who were deathly ill. There was such an oppressive darkness there and it was so palpable.
And yet …in the midst of that darkness there was a light. There were a community of Christians who worshipped our Lord. In that little dusty church they sang their hearts out as I never heard before. It was so hot with no air conditioning. And yet the pastor wore a suit and tie and the women dressed in their finest garments they had. Of course, in our US standards it wasn't much but they looked so beautiful to me.
Thank you for being sensitive to me Jennifer. I love you and continue to pray for you too. I'm so glad to be your friend. Isn't blogging wonderful?
Love,
Debbie