Romans 9:1, 2 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. (The Message Bible)
Paul’s huge sorrow was that his fellow countrymen, the Jewish nation, were not, as a whole, convinced, as Paul was, that Jesus was their Messiah. This got ugly at times in Paul’s life with beatings and evictions and imprisonments. But these were not the source of the pain. We all hold certain convictions dear to our hearts and we wish for those we love to feel the joy and peace we feel from such convictions. In this life that doesn’t always happen. Parents have hopes for their children. It is just the natural way of things. Children sometimes break parent’s hearts with the choices they make. Parents sometimes break children’s hearts with their choices too. We speak our truth as clearly and as lovingly as we can. We trust those we love to the arms of God. It doesn’t always turn out the way we want it to. Still, God is in control. Faith is only faith when we don’t totally understand. We don’t put the things we think we totally understand under the category of faith. This week think about which relationships in your life that you wished were different you need to trust to God. How can you do that?
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