Welcome to the first FMF link-up of March! And another first: I actually straight-up *forgot* to finish this post last night at my usual time! Gah!
In seven years of hosting the FMF community, I don’t think this has ever happened before. My apologies for the delay! At least it’s still Friday when it’s going live . . . 🙂 I also forgot to tell my son to take the trash to the street last night for our weekly pick-up, which also never happens, so my brain must have really not thought it was Thursday yesterday!
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: SUFFER
Though this particular writing prompt may seem like quite a “downer,” I chose it because of the comfort I find from this passage of the Bible:
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:6-9, NIV)
Sometimes our trials just seem to last forever, don’t they? It can often feel as if there is no end. And yet this passage gives me great hope: now for a little while.
Though it may not feel as though it is only for a little while, in the grand scheme of eternity, our trials here on earth — however taxing they may be — are only temporary. Praise God!
There is literally a bright light at the end of the tunnel, a great and certain hope that God has indeed gone before us to prepare a place for us — a place with no more death or crying or mourning or pain.
So even though we will face trouble in this life — Jesus even promised it! — we can ultimately take heart because He has overcome the world. (John 16:33)
And in all of this, as we trudge on through the muck of a fallen world, He is busy with a very particular purpose: the refining of our faith and ultimately, the salvation of our souls.
So press on, sisters and brothers. He is coming soon.
STOP.
Speaking of suffering, I’m so, SO happy to share that my latest book is finally in stock!
101 Prayers for Comfort in Difficult Times is a collection of short prayers and Scripture passages
to encourage and uplift you with promises from the Lord when you’re going through trials.
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Also, don’t forget: Our next Writing Accountability Group starts next week!
We’ll meet eight times on Zoom to write together in real time. It’s so fun!
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Join us with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:Â
Hey, no worries, and you really ARE human!
They tell me that I’m suffering,
they tell me I should be depressed,
they say I should renounce my King,
and if I do they’ll be impressed.
They want me to say there’s no God,
and that there is no victory.
I really find it kinda odd
that they want to hate through me,
and to them losers I will say
goest thou and take a hike;
or offer this, a better way,
go and sit upon a spike,
any of a size that fits.
Your brain’s the first thing that it hits.
Three minutes flat, but then, I am being regularly flamed by a hater, whose mindlessness is rather amusing.