Please don't waste your sorrows.
Huh?
I mean don't just hurt and do nothing about it - don't go through fiery trials and not be bettered by em. Let the Holy Spirit change you for Christ and His world-wide Cause. Don't drown your troubles in alcohol, in worldliness, in the occult, or in other substances. That's a complete waste. Just take your sorrows to the throne room of God in prayer, give yourself and them to Him, and then stay faithful trusting the Lord to work all things for the good—for the good of His Kingdom and for the good of those around you.
Solitude, listening to the Word, waiting reverently, pouring out your heart to the Lord during times like these so that He can direct you ..will all be tied to your future fruitfulness. There's a time to act, but first there's a time to stop and wait upon the Lord. As you do, God will make you more sensitive and compassionate towards those who are hurting as you have hurt. He can take the pain away. He might not every time, but He can indeed heal, restore, mend, awaken, revive and then minister to others through you. Will you get out of His way, yield as His willing tool, and allow His Spirit to flow through you to other people today? The Bible says we are to...
"Be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share." ~Paul, 1 Timothy 6:18
I love what others-oriented, Francis of Assisi, prayed in this regard...
"Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me bring Your love;
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt the true faith in You.
O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy...
Make me a channel of Your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life."
Where there is hatred let me bring Your love;
Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt the true faith in You.
O Master, grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of Your peace
Where there is despair in life let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness only light
And where there's sadness ever joy...
Make me a channel of Your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we are born to eternal life."
Have you died to your own way, plans and purpose yet? Have you been born to eternal life? You can be today! Francis was a rich-kid-sinner from a very wealthy home, but he became truly rich in Christ as He forsook it all in obedience to Authority. God made him a zealous missionary if you will and this can happen with you as well! Sure, you remember the story, how Francis quit living for self and was made compassionate by the Compassionate One as he looked up and then looked out.. upon the poor who Jesus died to save. Christ made Him a fisher of men and women. Frances and all other true believers (of his time and even in ours..) never wanted to be pedestalized at all or for anyone to pray to them. That's not biblical even if some church encourages this. He knew that he was to pray to God through Jesus Name..alone. And his prayer life all started when he was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired from his guilt. The Spirit was convicting him royally. So he turned to Jesus and away from his sin habits.
Question: Have you ever gone through an extremely rough time in your life, and then later on found that you felt a whole lot of compassion for people in that same situation ..that you didn't have inside you before? Yeah, pure love as you've never experienced before to that same level? Perhaps you once had cancer, but now feel deep empathy for those having to endure chemotherapy. I have not been there, but I have close friends who have explained this to me (Read all of Romans 8).
"Give me a heart sympathetic and tender, Jesus, like Thine, Lord, like Thine, touched by the needs that are surging around me, and filled with compassion divine." ~ Anon.
Hey, there are a lot of bad things I have not had to experience. I am still far from perfect too, but I have found that when I encounter a person living with an oppressive alcoholic, it really moves me inside. I want to act. I want to share words that will comfort and help. By the way.. is there any other type of alcoholic who uses (See Proverbs 20:1)?
I have discovered that when I come across someone who has experienced religious manipulation and cruel spiritual abuse, I can really relate to them. I can relate to people who have been lied to and fleeced. In fact as I look back over the years, on all the times when people said I really ministered to them, it was often when I had encountered people who had gone through a similar struggle as I had experienced. The Word has answers that make a difference. This is why I rejoice to see Christians take their failures, their pains, their problems and turn them around according to the Word and give the devil a black eye with em so to speak. If you once encouraged people to get abortions, believer, then go witness to and counsel people thinking about that type of murder. If you've been to jail, forget not those behind bars.
Case in point: Chuck Wendell Colson is a primo example of this type of ministry after his time spent in prison for his own blunder. You remember how Chuck was commonly named as one of the Watergate Seven, but he was never charged with that specifically, or prosecuted for any crime at the Watergate break-in or cover-up. He did plead guilty to obstruction of justice in another case and served seven months of a one-to-three year sentence in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama.. as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.
But Chuck's sins didn't immobilize him into becoming an unproductive person in our society. He failed forwards. He learned from them and we can too! Chuck wasn't turned into some inverted depression-session, no, no, he wasn't stopped by personal shame. He advanced in spite of weakness in God's strength. He simply repented and trusted Christ in 1973.. and with Prison Fellowship, a ministry that he personally founded, Chuck did a wonderful work for others behind bars and still does to this day. All his guilt is gone and his story really encourages me as a saved sinner. It should encourage you as well.
Chuck of course loves the Lord more than "ministry" or anyone else, but he still constantly reaches out to prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families both as an act of service to Jesus Christ and as a contribution to restoring peace to our crime-ridden cities and communities endangered by sin.
"If we want to become the type of people that God can use anytime, anywhere, anyplace, we must offer ourselves, our homes, our kitchens, and our living rooms as outposts for the kingdom of God." ~ Franklin Graham
Do you view your life as your life? Where have you hurt God and others before? What sicknesses, sorrows, or failures, and consequences have you had to put up with? Do ya view your stuff as your stuff? Do you view your troubles as your troubles ..alone? Please stop that! Let Christ be Lord of all for He alone can use you as a blessing for others. Would you like to be born a second time like Chuck Colson was when he was regenerated?
