From Thorns To Thrones

Many years ago during a very turbulent and trying time in my life, personally and professionally, I received a card of encouragement from Ed and Miriam McCarter the owners of Special Occasions Books and Gifts, a thriving local business in my home town. The card read this:"I'd rather gather roses without thorns, Lord; A bright and fragrant beautiful bouquet. To decorate my world with pretty pleasures –The brambles and the briers, I'll throw away. But You say I must pluck the thorns as well, Lord, Though they'll pierce my heart and sting my soul; You say that pain's a part of peace, You tell me, that breaking is a part of being whole. You say that if I truly want to know You, I must count everything but Christ a loss; You ask me to exchange my will for Yours, Lord, To trade contentment's kingdom for a cross. And so I come before You, weak but willing; I seek to walk Your path, and not my own; I choose to share the crown of thorns You wore, Lord, Until I kneel before Your royal throne."-by B.J.Hoff

Needless to say, those words not only pierced my soul but they also released to me an inner healing that allowed me to embrace my moments of struggle and pain with a strong and content passion of deliverance and peace until deliverance came.

How often are we confronted with those moments of hopelessness and even utter helplessness, when all we see is dismal and dim with no resolve of breakthrough. Not because we are faithless or have lost our hold on God's word and HIS plan, more because we are seemingly left with the feeling of loneliness in the midst of an already difficult time. As I interact with my own sufferings of this present time, I am acutely aware of the fact that though it is not worthy to be compared to the revealed glory that shall come...I must still endure its pain, discomforts and its inconveniences until HE brings change. Might I suggest to all who find yourselves in these most trying hours tempted by the reality of your own human frailty and fallibility to pursue a place of peace through acceptance of HIS will.

We have in our lives changed and handled all we can handle. If you could bring remedy or recourse to your present situations of thorns you would have already done it. So, therefore you must accept what GOD allows and know with a sense of certainty that your times are in HIS hand and HE shall in HIS own providential consciousness bring all things to pass and bring you out of this present dilemma stronger and wiser.

Be encouraged and understand the process is only unbearable when we fail to recognize the LORD of the beginning is also the LORD of the end. He therefore has complete knowledge and control of the middle...yes if we can just learn to navigate through the middle, we will sense victory even within the storm!