Having Dropped Calls?

-Joe Fornear

I’ve always believed we pay far too much for something as unreliable as cell phones. How many times have you been let down by the lack of a simple connection? We had to install a mini cell tower for our cell phones to work – in our own home!

Sometimes I think we see prayer like a cell phone contract. It’s hard not to expect Him to perform – to answer when we call. Reconciling this was a struggle during my battle with Stage IV cancer. If He really loved me, He should be as committed to my  well-being and comfort as I am, right?

Yet when I reviewed the “contract” – His promises in the Bible – it’s clear He never promised a struggle-free life. In fact Jesus guaranteed just the opposite:

I have spoken these things to you that in Me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. – John 16:33.

Note He provides “peace” and “good cheer” in the midst of tribulation, not necessarily by the removal of tribulation. Although we all love when He removes them! Yet this reminds me of Psalm 23 where He “sets a table for us in the presence of our enemies.” The basis for peace and good cheer is that by His crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus mastered the world’s major “glitches” – pain, suffering, sin, death, even hell (more here on His free gift of eternal life).

Supernatural coping skills can be tapped “in Him.” We too can overcome our tribulations  – through dependence on Him and calling out to Him. He can “hear you now” – your calls are not being dropped. He sometimes answers in ways we might not expect, nor prefer.

So when your battles are great and you’ve called out to Him a thousand times, don’t lose heart. He specializes in giving strength and comfort to the weary to those who call out to Him.

From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. – Psalm 61:2.

Father, please lift up so many of our friends who are really hurting right now. Show yourself to be comforting and empowering in the midst of their heartache, weakness and pain. You are an ever-present help in times of trouble.