The Practice of the Presence of JesusSample

Abba Father

Panic consumed me after I broke my neck at the age of seventeen. While my friends went off to college or landed jobs, I stayed stuck in a hospital. Life felt bleak, and I wanted some­one to magically promise that everything would be okay.

It’s the heartfelt plea of all who suffer. We want assurance that somehow things will work out in the end. We want to know that our world is orderly and stable, not spinning off into nightmarish chaos. We want God to be at the center of our suffering, not only holding our lives together but hold­ing us. Like a father who picks up his crying child, pats him on his back, and says, “There, there, honey, everything will be okay. Daddy’s here.” That’s our plea; we want God to be Daddy.

In Romans 8:28, we have the massive promise of that very assurance: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called ac­cording to his purpose.” Here our Abba Father tells us he is so in charge of everything that all hard things are or­dered to serve our ultimate good. This is true whether we face tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword (Romans 8:35). It’s true whether we face broken homes, bro­ken hearts, or broken necks.

As Brother Lawrence wrote, “I prayed for strength to suffer with courage, humility, and love. Ah, how sweet is it to suffer with God! However great the sufferings may be, receive them with love.”

The robust hope of the believer is not that we will escape a long list of bad things, but that God will make every one of our agonies an instrument of his mercy to do us good—in the here and now and in the here­after.

Meditate: Ask God to reveal the good things he is doing through the trials you face today.