My friend Rodney McNary wrote this–I hope it’s helpful and gives you peace as you go through life’s storms:
Shortsighted and unwise, people call men “happy” when life goes well with them, when they are prosperous, cheerful, or loved by relations and friends, and the sun is shining. People with these kinds of circumstances, however, may not necessarily be blessed.
The word “blessed” implies abiding joy. Outward prosperity cannot give it; nor adversity, pain, affliction or trials. It is like the depths of the ocean where the surface is always changing. Sometimes it is calm and without waves. At other times, it is tossed back and forth by restless winds, while far and deep below there is a continual, consistent changeless silence, rest, and peace. Blessedness is not an outward ornament of life. It is a gift to mankind, for God gives it to him. What God gives cannot be taken away by the chances and changes of our lives.
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
He is:
Author of Beyond the Battle: A man's guide to his identity in Christ in an oversexualized world
Host of the The Flip Side Podcast
Join an online men's small group led by Noah and team at BeyondTheBattle.net
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Reading this, thinking Christ is the peace, Christ is the rest, He’s the blessing. . . everything’s found in him. Gotta give props to brothers and sisters who live this and show it. . . those living in the hard places where Christ means risk and yet are faithful. They often don’t have places to meet, or pastors, or bibles and yet they have this genuine thing in Christ you can see.
Quick story. . . Noora was married to a Muslim sheik in Egypt, an important man in his mosque. When she converted thru her sister’s witness, her husband beat her so bad her gallbladder ruptured. He forced her to leave the home with nothing. He divorced her and her family disowned her. Even after divorcing her, he’s pursued her and tried to have her arrested and sued her. Noora has since met & married a Christian guy and today they help other believers in Egypt.
When asked about everything she’s gone thru, says this. . . “Jesus is worth it, you know. I love him so much. Jesus never promised that we would have a rose-filled world, a good one. As I go along with Christ, I share his suffering and I know the trouble that I face is because I walk with him. The secret of joy is having a real link with Christ. We can’t help but be happy. I feel in Christ like a candle – a shining candle. I can see the light whenever I go thru darkness, wherever I go.”
Hey man, not sure if your body is connected to these brothers and sisters but it means life. . . can see Christ in them. Last fall, heard about Obaid, this Afghan Christian/former Muslim. . . although he had fled to India with his wife 7 years ago, they plastered his pic on national tv for 10 days last August because he had become a pastor and many Afghans are now Christians thru him, and they were calling for any Muslim who knows him in India to kill him. Was able to source him out. . . turns out his English is good and we’ve struck up this email connection and know him as a brother. Always try to encourage Obaid but come away more blessed by what he shares. In an early email, was asking him how things were going, he wrote. . . “Well life is very difficult but our God is greater than those difficulties, there is no single day that I am not threatened, warned, insulted and even attacked by these unhappy lost, but I forget everything when I remember that there is no single second that I am not loved by our Heavenly Father, He is great and His love is wonderful, it is only because of His love and the Power and guidance of His Holy Spirit that I am still alive in Faith.”
Know you guys pray. . . remember Obaid and his wife Tarana, they’re like thirty something, living as refugees with no rights in India which has no refugee convention. He pastors 100+ former Afghani Muslims into Christ in a basement and goes out evangelizing in the streets of New Delhi. Was sharing last month that he was beaten 8 times in the streets for this in January and February. . . but it was just a matter-of-fact kinda thing at the end of his email talking about how excited they were to complete the Pashtun translation of Luke and asking for prayer for Anam, a brother in his church who was beaten and hospitalized and they were threatening to rape his daughters if he told police.
Man, too many words. . . Christ is the blessing. . . you can see Him in them.