Encountering God’s Love in Suffering & SicknessSample

“God’s love is our comfort”

When we listen—really listen—to the Lord, looking Him straight in the face, He removes the dread. It does not say He removes the disaster. But the dread of disaster. Ella and I sat quietly, trying to absorb the meaning of the verse. I wanted to be quiet and listen and not teach or lecture, but this was unbelievably beautiful. If I really sit and listen to God, He will lift the dread. The dread and fear are what so often steal our peace and leave us on the edges of our moments exhausted. We meet the scary of life and forget to turn to God and listen and know His peace. We scramble to control, fix, and protect from hard. The imagined fears and worries often break us more than reality.

We bowed our heads together and asked if Jesus would help us take hold of this new, startling truth. We prayed to live present in the gifts and callings of today without dread of tomorrow. We asked, and we expected, and we trusted that in the knowing and listening, we would find peace and comfort.

* When you pray for God to lift you out of fear and dread, do you truly believe He can and will? Why or why not? What is an example of when He did, and what is an example of when you felt He didn't? How did He show you His goodness in both answers?