A long time ago now, there was this song many of us used to sing. It was simply entitled, “Don’t take my burdens, or my Cross away.” Some of us are missing something. There is a spirit, that is speaking loudly in this hour; it says, that all suffering is of the devil. It likes to proclaim, that all negative things, come from the dark side. I think there is a test; one that could determine the truth of the matter. If we pray against it, we bind it in Jesus name, and it doesn’t move, let’s reconsider.

A dear lady posted something here on Facebook today that opens up a new avenue of thought for some of us. It’s her message and I give honor to her; as we should. She said she was praying for some situations some folks were going through. The Lord spoke to her, and said that He was not going to remove that obstacle from them. He said that those things, had been put into their lives, in order to cause them to be stronger; to help them grow to be more like Him.

What she needed to pray for, was for God to give those people strength, to “go through” it; to get through to the other side of it.

How many times, have we wept and cried for God to move something that was in our way. Perhaps, it was things that hurt so badly; at times, we just didn’t think we could live. But, God didn’t move it. You see, it’s often much later, before we can see that God truly had a hand in what we were going through. It was only after the fact, that we could see, that God used that thing to shape us and mold us to be something different in Him.

Let me just say this; it wouldn’t be a trial or a test, if we already knew the answer. We most often, would not grow, if it was just something we could easily shrug off. We need to understand about what God sends, and what He allows.

The song says, our burdens, keep us humble. No, we are not to live so burdened all of the time. But neither are we just to drift along on this tour of duty, and think we are powerful and mighty, without encountering some real turbulence along the way.

Yes, the enemy does bring things against us, and yes, some people bring hard knocks against us too. But we are facing a true dilemma today. Either we believe that ALL things work to our good, or we don’t. These, are the things, that can change us. Some things are evil, and they make no sense; we’re not naïve folk. Like it or not, even those things, can knock us down lower, or they can make us reach higher.

I fully believe, that no matter how hard it may be, God can help us to turn it around somehow, and learn from it. His word, says that. It may be even great loss, but if there is nothing else that comes from it, we can truly understand the pain of others, and help them, when no one else can.

God does not leave us in the dark forever. Even somewhere along the way in this disaster, we can begin to see, the truth. The very thing we might be wishing the most would leave, is the very thing that is helping to shape us. It is not fun; and we may even yet be sore about it, but we change; we do.

The Cross the Lord toted for us, was a hard way to go. Sharing a little bit of that burden, is not too much to ask. Especially, for what we get in return.

Robert Blackburn