We do not walk around in this world as Pollyannas, ignoring the evil and attempting to gloss over the pain with positive thinking and cute sayings.

No. Real problems exist. People are hurting. Evil is on a rampage. Truth lies buried and sorrow ravages. Disease has disrupted our lives. Even the locusts are on the move.

We know this. We live this.

Our hearts are broken, and like the prophets of old we cry out in distress and grief to God (Joel 1).  We run to Him like a child with a broken toy, pleading with Him to fix it – to fix us.

The glory of the Gospel is not in the absence of pain and suffering; the Gospel was birthed in the suffering of the cross.  Instead, it is most brilliant in the darkest of times when we are groping and looking for hope – because God does not leave us comfortless when we cry to Him.

So, today, take some time to cry to Him.

Psalm 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Psalm 94: ¹⁸ When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up. ¹⁹ In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.

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