Finding Hope in Illness With Amy CarmichaelChikamu

The Way to God’s Best

You have had a long, long trial of faith. One comfort is, that it is only a minute at a time and there is grace and patience given for each minute as it comes. I do trust the medicals will find the cause. There must be one.

I do understand (and so, and far more, does your Lord) the temptation to discouragement. Don’t fear. It is only that the devil doesn’t want you here at all. And in the end, he is always beaten at that game.

You don’t need words to tell you how I am feeling about this weary pain. It seems sometimes that there is no way to God’s Best but through pain, and yet how earnestly one longs to save a dear one from it.

Don’t be disappointed about not being fit for work just yet. “Let patience have her perfect work” (James 1:2–4) has been one of the words set to me to learn by heart. I never found patience easy, being by nature a most impatient mortal; even one week in bed seemed impossible in the old days. Well, I only tell you so to help you to know that I understand the ache to be well and up and out. And He understands far better than I do. I often think of those hours on the cross—helpless hours. He understands.

And the depression that follows pain He understands too. “My soul cleaveth to the dust” (Ps. 119:25): no truer words were ever written. I understand your dread of pain. And He under­stands, He who bore pain unimaginable and unforgettable. Our scars won’t be eternal. His are. Sometimes just to know one is understood helps.