Psalm 73:25-26 (NASB)
25 Whom have I in heaven but You?
And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

The wife of a couple we have known for over 20 years died this week after a long illness. The husband wrote to his friends that he was both happy and sad. Happy that his wife was with Jesus now, but sad that they were apart here on earth. It is times like this that we ponder the issue of pain and often ask God why His creation is the way it is.

C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors, but he is also the most frustrating to read. His writing is clearly organized, but his words require many stops to contemplate and fully digest them. As I was reading his book, “The Problem of Pain” today, I was thinking about our friends. Eternity comes to the front of our thinking when friends and loved ones die.

In the book, Lewis was describing the concept of Divine Goodness, the attribute of God that He is love. He rightly noted that often our concept of God as a God of love is that we substitute the word love with kindness. Kindness is our desire. But, love is much more complex; it is more stern and wonderful than kindness.

Lewis further describes our relationship with God. “God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being.” God is completely unlike us, yet He knows us better than even a husband or wife of decades. The Psalmist reflected that in the verses above. Even when there is pain, He is our closest ally.

Father, I pray for our friend today. He is your child and I know You love him. I pray that Your love would surround him and be the strength of his heart in the coming days. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Acts 9:11 (NASB)
11 And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying,

Ananias, in a vision, was being instructed by God to go to Saul of Taurus to lay hands on him, to return his sight. In this instruction, he was also told that Saul was praying. Saul’s entire world view had just been turned upside down. He now knew that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus was the Christ, that Jesus was his Lord and Savior.

He had much to pray about. Saul, a devout Jew, was not a stranger to prayer. But this time it was different. His prayers were now to God with whom he had a personal relationship. This must have led him to praises and thanksgiving for he was now a child of the living God.

He also had much to confess. He not only had rejected Jesus, but he had personally persecuted many who believed in Him. He was present when Stephen was stoned to death. His actions as a zealot had led to many deaths. That life was over, and he would now live for Jesus, no matter the consequences.

This was a picture of true conversion; the new person Paul had become, being born of God. It isn’t different for any of us, if we are truly part of His kingdom. When we think about our life before Jesus, it naturally draws us into prayer. Prayers of praise, of thankfulness, of confession. It draws us closer to Jesus, which we crave with each beat of our hearts.

Heavenly Father, what joy it is to be Your child. What a blessing it is to know Jesus. Praises to You, my Lord and Savior. May Your kingdom come Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.