Finding Hope in Illness With Amy CarmichaelChikamu

To one whose father was ill

I have just come upon this jewel (in a most uncomfortable setting, but a jewel all the same): “Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord” (2 Kings 10:9–10). I thought of one who is going through a bitter time—every possible arrow the archers can produce is being shot at that soul—and then I thought of you, and your father and mother. Nothing of the word of the Lord spoken to you about your dearest shall fall unto the earth. Nothing they have ever known as His word to them shall fall.

I pray that you all will be helped through this new trial of faith. (How precious faith must be to the Lord.) I pray and believe for this, that you will be comforted by the God of all comfort.

Yes, I understand; how much easier it would be if one could bear pain for others—instead of them, I mean. I have often prayed that I might, for Colossians 1:24 R.V. seems to give ground for such a prayer, but never once has that joy been mine. So now I am learning to be content. Perhaps those of whom I am thinking especially would never have known Him as they know Him now if they had not suffered. Indeed it must be so. “I never knew the comfort of God as I know it now,” one said to me yesterday.