“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

2 Corinthians 1:3,4

This week we have been operating under the “lay aside” plan. That is, the Lord has seen fit to lay us aside so He can have some undistracted time with us. We all have gotten some kind of powerful flu bug, which seems to run 5 to 7 days with fever and great weakness.

As in all things, the Lord is working out several purposes in this. For one thing, our team leader took the two little local girls living with us, which gives us a break. Then, we were able to relax some in the midst of being sick because we can’t possibly be involved in anything outside of surviving.

A more significant reason is that I’ve been too busy with work and have neglected undergirding everything by prayer. Now I’ve been able to spend some good hours in intercession and prayed about some things that have been gnawing at me, but I hadn’t taken to the Lord. What a relief to lift my soul to Him concerning these burdens, getting out the jumble of thoughts and feelings so I could process them in the light of Scripture..

I praise God for His patience and persistence with us. He knows exactly what to do to get our attention and bring correction. And if we don’t pay attention, He will turn up the volume until we do hear. “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6).

I see how I subtly began to place more emphasis on doing and less on praying. Even though my prayer life was still there, it was not of the over-riding importance that it should always be. Now we have some more days of prayer ahead of us, as we will probably be down for a while longer. But we know, “…this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).

Prayer: “Lord, help me to always have your perspective on the happenings in life, to praise you in and for all and to cooperate with what you are seeking to accomplish in me. Amen.”