St. Paul tells us that the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. This is most certainly true for those who are perishing because they don’t think they need the mercy of God, but it’s also true to those who are perishing because they don’t think they could ever receive the mercy of God, those who believe they’re beyond the reach of God’s love.
We see this in Sarah. When she first hears that Abraham will be the father of many nations, she despairs and concludes this must mean that he’ll have a child with her maidservant Hagar, whom she gives to her husband. But when the Lord returns and promises that she herself will indeed conceive and bear a son, Sarah laughs–not the laughter of joy, but the laughter of despair, the laughter of doubt. For decades her prayers went unanswered, and now that she’s well beyond any hope, God will open her womb? What foolishness. But, through Isaac, God reveals his mercy and brings faith and salvation to the doubting soul of Sarah. May we learn from her example.
No matter how deep your sorrow, you are never beyond the mercy of God. No matter how many times you’ve prayed and prayed for comfort, and haven’t received it, you never need to conclude that God cannot or will not give you the comfort he has promised. He will work according to his own time, and to proclaim his glory, he may reveal his mercies when it seems far too late for them to be possible. But never think your God is deaf to your cries, that he will not come to your aid. Look to the wounds of Jesus Christ and see that, exactly at the right time, your Lord did the most impossible thing of all by dying for your sins and rising for your justification. So when you suffer, laugh. Not because you think you’re beyond the mercy of God, but laugh that the devil is trying to pump sorrow into the heart of someone who has already been clothed in that mercy and welcomed into the family of God.
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