Thursday, March 11, 2010

Pray With Urgency and Expectancy

I know that many people don't know how Zac Smith is doing, so I wanted to pass on his latest update.
Please pass this on to people who will pray with urgency and expectancy:

Unkindly Showing Kindness

Posted By zac on March 11, 2010
The past few days have taken their toll. The cancer in my abdomen is growing. I can feel it expanding with my fingertips. The pain is getting worse. Every day is worse than the day before. I am taking pain medicine around-the-clock now. I sleep about 60-90 minutes at a time. I yearn for an uninterrupted six hours of sleep. Or for an hour of no pain.
And yet through it all, I am seeing blessings. People continue to shower us with notes of encouragement or with checks. Those who love us are helping us get things in order. While it hurts to finalize things, it gives me peace knowing my wife and kids will be taken care of.
Everything is a gift from God. This life appears to be simply a sequence of blessings prompting a response of worship to God. And so I worship Him through the pain. He shows me kindness.
John Piper says it beautifully in his book on Job:
The Lord has made me drink
The cup of his severity
That he might kindly show to me
What I would be when only he
Remains in my calamity.
Unkindly he has kindly shown
That he was not my hope alone.
God unkindly showed kindness to Job. And He is unkindly showing kindness to me.
God has never promised me tomorrow; but God has promised me eternity.