Revelation 9:1-11. A human face
There is a limit to suffering, even for those who have not confessed, repented and made application. In todayamprsquos passage, the time is ampldquofive monthsamprdquo (5). Five months is not the mythic and God-blessed time of 40 days or 40 years. But it is long enough to ampldquolong to dieamprdquo (6).
I remember well the time before my conversion, my five months of suffering in which I wished to die and even took steps one day to commit suicide but in the end turned aside in consideration of others, Godamprsquos grace.
I was married to my first wife at the time. We had three small children. I was a graduate student, and we lived on my scholarship designed for a single man, on student loans, and on the money I got each week for selling my blood for plasmapheresis.
My blood money bought our groceries each week.
I had never known such stinging poverty. In the winter I wore woolen socks on my hands because I couldnamprsquot afford to buy mitts or gloves. My wife had none. Our house was nearly a hundred years old. It had no insulation.
I couldnamprsquot afford to buy heating oil in the winter. I chopped trees and burned them in the fireplace, and the room it was in was the only warm room in the winter. Frost coated the ceilings of the upstairs rooms.
Life grew harder and my studies seemed pointless in the face of such ongoing hardship. My family suffered from my pride of wanting a PhD. They showed me the human face of suffering.
But in the midst of that suffering, the Lord called me. It took me many months to answer his call and even then it was hard for me to bend my knees to my Lord. But, praise God, I did!
In the midst of my ampldquofive monthsamprdquo I received the greatest blessing of all, my salvation.
Application: give a QTin to a student who is suffering
Lord, let me always seek your blessing in the midst of my suffering and hardship. Let me not be blind to your loving mercy. Let me not fail to see you.
