“And in that day you will say: ‘O Lord, I will praise You; though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.” Isaiah 12:1 (NKJV)
It’s a question as old as time itself: What have I done that I am suffering? Why am I going through this tribulation? Oftentimes, we wonder if God is so angry with us that He has forgotten us, or if that’s the source of our suffering. And in those moments, we may find it difficult to praise Him.
When Peter addressed the lame man in Acts 3, he “fixed” his eyes on him. That caught the lame man’s attention. He looked back into Peter’s eyes. He knew that he was about to receive something (Acts 3:4-5). The gift of healing opened the lame man’s eyes to something far greater than a temporary need, and that was cause for great praise to God (Acts 3:8-9).
But what would happen if we could look into Jesus’s eyes? There are times where we may bury our heads out of fear because of things we have done. We avoid our time in the Word or in prayer. But if we could really look into His eyes for just a moment, we would find that our God looks on us with love, mercy, compassion, and a desire to fight for us.
We will discover that He is not only not the source of our suffering, but the Comforter and Healer in our suffering! When we know that, we will have great reason to praise God.
So how can we best praise Him through our suffering? Paul answered this question well in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NKJV) when he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
“What I’m Sayin is”, One of the best ways we can praise God is to allow the comfort He has given us to comfort others.
Think About It…
Chaplain Answai T. White, B.S., M.Div., C.P.E.
