Me: Your friend looks like he has a little wear and tear.

Prodigal: That is perfectly fine with me.

This comes from the book Overcoming Spiritual Blindness by James P. Gills, M.D.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” ( 1 Pet. 5:6). The familiar maxim “no pain, no gain” is as true of our spiritual life as it is of our sporting life. Jamie Buckingham was humbled by the pain of his sin when, as a very young minister, he plummeted from a first-class act to a man without a job, respect, or fellowship. As a result, he learned that we can only become strong after we have been made weak. Jamie, like all of us, had trusted in his own intelligence and his abilities as an entrepreneur to achieve what he wanted and what he felt his church needed. He trusted in himself. It was only after he had suffered that he learned to depend fully upon God. Then he found himself and his destiny–in God alone. Jamie Buckingham needed to be “crippled” to become strong; he learned to walk with a limp. It was his firm conviction that you cannot trust anyone that does not limp. One who does not limp, who does not exhibit a wounding, may not have withstood sufficient misery to have become completely prostrate before the Creator in humility–to have been brought under the mighty hand of God through suffering.

We cannot explain or understand what God is bringing about from the suffering, we have had to endure. The Lord will bring good, but until then worship Him and have trust.

John 15:12-14

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no other than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org