Sam Hardman
This is a prayer of devotion, posted here with the goal of encouraging suffering Christians to let the hard things they are dealing with drive them to Christ.
Suffering and Glory
O Lord, You have said
that our sufferings in this present darkness
are not worth comparing with the glory to come.
This word is true because it comes from You –
the God who cannot lie.
Yet the suffering of Your people
is beyond all counting;
its vast sum cannot be told.
Dark powers strike with force and guile;
they creep, slither, sneak,
growl, roar, and shriek.
Daily we bear self-inflicted wounds;
Our own natures war against our souls.
The world lies broken under sin’s curse,
and all Your sheep wear its scars.
If suffering the painful buffetings
of this war is our present lot,
how staggering then must the glory be!
But how could it be otherwise?
You have come into this cursed world for us,
have become Brother to us,
have suffered with us and for us –
far beyond the sum of all the wounds we endure.
What end is meet for Your wounds,
if not glory unfathomable –
glory that You have stooped so far to share –
sharing that raises rebels and sinners
so unimaginably high?
O Lord, if this be so,
we care not for the glory,
if only we may have You.
And yet, O magnificent Giver,
none may have You
but must have glory too.
How puny then this momentary pain –
growls and roars are but mere whisperings.
Yet still we yearn for You, Lord.
We yearn for You.