Faithful is the Word of the Month!!

In the book of Job in the Bible, Job has to endure much hardship which includes the death of family and losing his livestock, animals, and property. Finally, he is striken with a terribly painful disease which makes him wish he were never born. All the while his "friends" were operating under the impression that suffering and hardship were a result of sin. Job is suffering = Job had sinned. They go to great lengths to get him to "confess his sins" - everything from kind encouragement to yelling at him and calling him a hypocrite. What they don't realize is that Job is blameless in the eyes of the Lord but that Job is being tested by Satan to gauge his faithfulness to God. Despite evrything, Job refuses to curse the LORD and remains faithful. He is rewarded with seven times as much as he had before. The point I am trying to make is that suffering is NOT a result of sin or a punishment. Sometimes bad things happen to good people for reasons we do not understand. When these things happen we can do one of two things: 1). We can turn away from God and curse Him or 2). we can remain faithful and obedient knowing that He has reasons that are beyond our understanding. Even through our heartbreak we can praise God because we know that he holds every tear we cry in His hand. Now, I must confess that I have lived a fortunate life so far. My true faithfullness in face of severe suffering has not had to be tested yet. But I am so thankful for those God put in my life as living examples to me. Namely my pastor who lost his 3 year old son this past summer in an accident, and my good friend, Shawnee, whose life now is extremely different than it was last year - or than she ever thought it would be! You see, last year she had a perfectly healthy 12 year old daughter who this past summer suffered sudden and severe brain damage after fighting brain swelling and lessions brought on by a simple childhood virus. Mikayla's prognosis is unknown since she is the only one who has survived a severe case of this illness. As of now, she remains in mainly a comatose state. The unending faith her parents have shown is amazing to me. As is understandable, they have had a variety of emotions from sadness to anger but throughout everything they remain committed to the LORD and expecting a miracle for their daughter... they will never stop believing that it can happen... and I will never stop praying for it. Whether healing is slow, one cell at a time, or sudden, we wait on God's timing with unending faithfulness!