“Maybe we wonder if God can take all that goes on in our mind and heart. Maybe we simply want to hold on to our own pleasurable imaginings, afraid that in showing them to our Lord, we may have to give them up. Thus, we are constantly tempted to fall back… out of fear or out of greed, and to keep from our God what often is the most in need of His healing touch.”
– Henri J. M. Nouwen
When God allows things to happen, it doesn’t make it right. I have learned that God can take evil and use it for good. He’s done that in my life. He can do it in yours. Trust. Pray. Surrender. God often uses tragedy for us to repent and be refined for His glory.
“Jesus’ secret to joy and life was simple: Die. …Against what all our instincts of self-preservation whisper to us every day, total surrender to Jesus is the safest investment we can make. Our only security is renunciation of all that this world holds secure. The safest and the hardest thing we can ever do. Jesus is not asking us to try harder. He is asking us to come and die and therefore live. He is not offering to make us nicer. He is offering to make us new.”
Following and Trusting 