With spring in the air, we are reminded of renewal and new life. This devotion from Billy Graham’s book, Unto the Hills, speaks to the beauty found through God’s restoration and protection in difficult times.

Blessed by Burdens

Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
—Isaiah 49:13, NIV

Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as adversity has done. Out of pain and problems have come the sweetest songs, the most poignant poems, the most gripping stories. Out of suffering and tears have come the greatest spirits and the most blessed lives.

J.R. Miller wrote, “Many of us find life hard and full of pain. We cannot avoid these things; but we should not allow the harsh experiences to deaden our sensibilities, or make us stoical or sour. The true problem of living is to keep our hearts sweet and gentle in the hardest conditions and experiences.”

Our oldest daughter married a Swiss. They have seven children and usually spend their summers in Switzerland and their winters in America. Sometimes when we visit them in Switzerland we take the children and go high up in the Alps on chair lifts. We cross over miles of land, looking down below at some of the most beautiful flowers to be found anywhere in the world. These flowers have survived the heavy snows of winter. The burdens of ice, snow, and winter storms have added their luster, beauty, and growth. It is hard to believe that just a few weeks earlier these flowers were buried under many feet of snow. Our burdens can have the same effect on our lives.

As Christians face the winds of adversity and the storms of trouble, they rise like the skylark. They are like the trees that survive the storm because their roots are driven deep. They are like the trees that grown on our mountain ridges in North Carolina—trees battered by winds, yet, trees in which we find the strongest wood.

The skylark, the flowers, the trees—all these illustrate Job’s words: “When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (23:10, NIV). The Christian who understands this aspect of God’s nature can find comfort in his suffering and peace in his pain. “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal” (Job 5:17-18, NIV).

Prayer

Our Father and our God, thank You for the blessings and burdens of my life. Please help me to be gentle and sweet, in spite of harsh experiences and difficult times. Teach me to be humble in good times. Let others see Your strength and love shine through my life at all times. Because of Christ. Amen.