Old Story, New Hope

I remember back to one of the truly dark periods of my life. Battling hard against depression and searching for any purpose to live, I prayed a prayer to the Lord. I asked him to use my pain in the lives of others and told him that I would be satisfied to live if I could see only that fruit.

God knows I had forgotten that prayer.

My old roommate reminded me of it tonight and recounted to me the most beautiful evidences of the way that God is using my suffering to bolster both the faith and the faithfulness of other believers. No sweeter words have been spoken to me and none could have encouraged me the way that these did.

While my ultimate hopes for this suffering are to see the Lord extend salvation to several friends and family members, I am resting tonight in the awesome power of the Lord’s call on his body—the calling that has given us one hope. Your hope is tied up in the same salvation as mine—as we await our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies! For in this hope were we saved. I am humbled again at your involvement and at the grace of God which binds us together in love.