When suffering hits hard, remember you are heading home; and to do so with joyful confidence that through your trial you are stretching your soul’s capacity for the Lord Jesus.
SHAUNA: We’ve got a beautiful song from Joni today that, I know, will be familiar to you.
(Joni sings:)
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling for you and for me
See on the portals He’s waiting and watching
He’s watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home
Ye who are weary, come home
Earnestly, tenderly Jesus is calling
Calling O sinner come home.
JONI: Don’t you love those words: “Come home, come home.” I tell you; it’s something I reallyneed to remember when I am hit with a trial. Sometimes I’ll forget where I’m heading; I’m not thinking about home and so I’ll waste my trials; like, a particular misery hits me and my first thought is to just “get through it; just plow through, Joni; God, just help me get to the other side,” with no thought as to what he wants to show me or teach me about himself, and no thought about how it might be an investment in heaven, my eternal home. It’s a tragedy to put your head down and just push forward through suffering, not realizing or even caring about God’s full purpose in it. Rather, our attitude when we encounter a trial ought to be that of Jacob who cried, “I will not let thee go unless you bless me.”
The Lord knew what it was like to pray with strong crying and tears, even in agony and blood; Jesus knew what it was like to pray for a deliverance that could not be granted [that is, if he were to become the Savior of the world]. He knew the reality of fear as he faced the cross with all its terror, plus the horror of separation from the Father. He knew loneliness, plus the ultimate loneliness of being forsaken when he was on the cross. But amazingly, he held fast to his profession of confidence in his father, because he knew he was going home. And here’s the thing – seeing that we have a great High Priest, Jesus, let ushold fast to our profession. Let’s remember we’re going home. And we don’t have a high priest that’s not been touched with our infirmities. Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace of helpin time of need.
That’s me. That’s what I want. That’s what I want to remember as I’m heading to my eternal home. “Though now ascended up on high, Christ bends on earth a brother’s eye; partaker of the human name, he knows the frailty of our frame. In every pang that rends the heart, the Man of Sorrows has a part; he sympathizes with our grief and to the sufferer brings relief. With boldness, therefore, at the throne, let us make our sorrows known; and ask the aid of heavenly power to help us in the suffering hour.” And so, friend [sinner friend], when suffering hits you hard, remember you’re heading home; and to do so with joyful confidence that through your trial you are stretching your soul’s capacity for the Lord Jesus. Come home to him.
© Joni and Friends