This last Christmas there was a family in Perthshire, Scotland struggling with the final illness of a much loved mother. The Christian fellowship and support they had was wonderful. When the time came for the funeral, stories were shared about their mother’s faith and love. Sometimes when words couldn’t cut it a hug was all that was required. And then life went back to normal… if that’s ever possible. One morning, as the grieving widower opened his Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon a verse of scripture was there waiting for him. For the first time in four decades he was about to leave on a business trip without the loving support of his wife. The question that often skulks around after bereavement had been raising its head again, ‘Why? Why her?’ And then this is what he read, written by another believer over a hundred years ago, spoken by Christ two thousand years ago.
“Many times Jesus and his people pull against one another in prayer. You bend your knee in prayer and say, “Father, I will that thy saints be with me where I am”; Christ says, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am”. Thus the disciple is at cross purposes with his Lord. The soul cannot be in both places; the beloved one cannot be with Christ and with you too. Now, which pleader shall win the day? If you had your choice; if the King should step from his throne and say, ‘Here are two supplicants praying in opposition to one another, which shall be answered?’ Oh! I am sure, though it were agony, you would start from your feet, and say, ‘Jesus, not my will, but thine be done.’ … Lord thou shalt have them. By faith we let them go.
Knowing that we would be encouraged to hear how he had been strengthened this man emailed us at Christian Focus Publications to tell us how one of our books had helped him, and how God’s word again had been there, ready and prepared for just the right moment.
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