Hardships

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of January, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

In 2 Corinthians 11:24, Paul is talking about his hardships, talking about the school of hard knocks. He says: 

“From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; …” 

Then he continues and goes on and on about the perils and the hardships that he has been through. These things are preparation sometimes for helping those who are going through tough times at the moment. You see, when you have been there yourself, then you can truly identify with that wounded person, not to say that God causes the hardships in our lives - no, but through them, He always works good. That's why that scripture in Romans 8:28 holds so much weight: 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

When we have a breakdown on the road with our motorcar, who is the first one to help us? Yes, it is normally a guy with an old broken-down car himself, because he knows what it is like to be stranded on a highway these days, but often you see a man driving past in his big new motorcar, saying, “Get that heap of scrap off the road”, because he doesn’t understand. A man is not driving a car like that because he wants to. It is all he has got. 

Sometimes a rich man has no time for a poor man who has no employment. He says he is lazy. No, he is not lazy sir, he cannot find a job! “Ja, but he is poor because he is stupid!” No, because a man is poor, it does not mean that he is stupid. But you see, when you have been without work, when you have had a vehicle that gives you constant trouble, when you have to go home and wash your dress that night, the only one you have got, so that you can wear it tomorrow morning for work, when you have got to wash your pick-up on a Saturday night and put benches in the back, with a canopy on to take your family to church on a Sunday morning, then you have compassion for those who are suffering. 

You see, Jesus said, in Matthew 5:3:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.”

Go out today and love someone!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.