• “A Christian woman’s true freedom lies on the other side of a very small gate—humble obedience—but that gate leads out into a largeness of life undreamed of by the liberators of the world, to a place where the God-given differentiation between the sexes is not obfuscated but celebrated, where our inequalities are seen as essential to the image of God, for it is in male and female, in male as male and female as female, not as two identical and interchangeable halves, that the image is manifested.” – Elisabeth Elliot

Trouble is a Messenger – Streams in the Desert 09/19

“My Father is the husbandman” (John 15:1).
It is comforting to think of trouble, in whatever form it may come to, us, as a heavenly messenger, bringing us something from God. In its earthly aspect it may seem hurtful, even destructive; but in its spiritual out-working it yields blessing. Many of the richest blessings which have come down to us from the past are the fruit of sorrow or pain. We should never forget that redemption, the world’s greatest blessing, is the fruit of the world’s greatest sorrow. In every time of sharp pruning, when the knife is deep and the pain is sore, it is an unspeakable comfort to read, “My Father is the husbandman.”
Doctor Vincent tells of being in a great hothouse where luscious clusters of grapes were hanging on every side. The owner said, “When my new gardener came, he said he would have nothing to do with these vines unless he could cut them clean down to the stalk; and he did, and we had no grapes for two years, but this is the result.”
There is rich suggestiveness in this interpretation of the pruning process, as we apply it to the Christian life. Pruning seems to be destroying the vine, the gardener appears to be cutting it all away; but he looks on into the future and knows that the final outcome will be the enrichment of its life and greater abundance of fruit.
There are blessings we can never have unless we are ready to pay the price of pain. There is no way to reach them save through suffering. –Dr. Miller.
“I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
“I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.”

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2 Responses to Trouble is a Messenger - Streams in the Desert 09/19

  • Susan Klabou says:

    The problem is though, that some ignore the suffering of others including other Christians, which could be stopped by walking a mile in another man's shoes. The discomfort caused by the footwear may well alter the viewpoint that the suffering of others is necessary pruning by God. Our Lord was never indifferent to suffering.

    • womenof7 says:

      "The discomfort caused by the footwear.." very well put Susan. That makes me think of another Streams in the Desert entry, about carrying the cross that is yours because another cross would not be fitting for you. https://womenofchristianity.com/the-lightest-cross-streams-in-the-desert-0829/

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