Meditation:
Suffering: Not the End.
“Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?” Isaiah 28:24
Plowing is an essential aspect of agricultural activities. Before a farmer can sow the seed, he must break up the fallow ground and level it. This is hard work indeed. But the farmer does not keep on doing it without any end. Once his work on the soil is over, he will sow the seed. He does his work step by step.
The Lord shows Judah an example of His dealings with them. He may be breaking them at present. That’s not easy; a hardened, barren land needs to be broken and prepared. Similarly, Judah, even each one of us, before the Lord can make us a fruitful, fertile land, he has to break us and prepare us.
Nevertheless, that work will come to an end. He will not keep on breaking us up. He will come to the next step. So, the Lord may allow hardship in life to mold and prepare us for better. He will complete His purpose in us, and make us just like a fruitful field.
Believer, today the Lord may be breaking you, with painful and even shameful events. Be strong and courageous. He will not do it forever. He is working on you to make you better. He will finish it at the right time. Wait patiently and yield to the Lord who knows the best for us.
“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you”, (1Pe 5:10).
NTK
