The strength that comes in difficult situations is from seeing the Master in them and knowing that He had been there before. Will He ask us to walk a pathway He hasn’t walked in? Will He lead us into places He has not been in? If he says deny yourself and take up your cross, is it not because He did the same first?
Knowing that He was tempted in everyway as we are and found without sin, gives us the courage and strength to walk on.
The pathway was long and the journey difficult. In the end the rewards earned and the lessons learned was worth every bit of the struggle. Refreshed and strengthened the disciple said “Shepherd of my soul lead me as you will, yours to my soul doth yield”.
Our God is eternally good. There is no evil or wrong in Him. The pathways that seem too hard to walk in are for our own eternal good and the rewards great. Didn’t Moses become a leader in the desert? Didn’t David learn to trust and depend on God totally when he was on the run from Saul? Didn’t Jesus learn obedience through the things He suffered even though He was a son? Isn’t Moses one of the greatest prophets ever and David the greatest of kings? Isn’t the name of our Lord far above all dominion, authority, principality and power? All of this would have not have been possible if they hadn’t walked through the difficult roads set for each of them
When at the crossroads of life and before you lies an easier way and the other one hard, look for the blood stained footprints and disciple, “Follow the Master”!
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land;
I hear them hail thy bright, ascendant star.
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers; spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned.
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet, as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me.
But thine are whole; can he have followed far
Who hast no wound or scar?
Amy Carmichael
