The love of my life said to me this morning: "Is it Friday, already? How quickly the times go by!!!" And my response was something about being retired and enjoying life. The thing is: not everyone feels like this. There are Christians in the Middle East and in the Ukraine who are suffering just because they believe in Jesus as LORD!!! If they would (or perhaps even COULD) send us a letter- I wonder what would be in it? Perhaps something like...
2 Corinthians, Chapter 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
For some Christians, life is like the winter scene above- cold and dark!!! Yet, as surely as the sun will rise, warmth and blessing will eventually come their way. If not in this life, then in the next!!!!! When I think of all the suffering around the world, I realize that even suffering can be a blessing and at the same time a lesson for us all. Please, today, say a prayer for those suffering for the cause of the Christ!!! And for ourselves as well- that we might learn from the strong confident faith that resides within those who are suffering!!!