Walking Through Pain

The last post I put up beseaching you, dear readers, to lift up Steve and April in your prayers is still there, and I am still begging you to spend some time on your knees to lift up not just this family as they are in the midst of life altering storm, but also to remember their family and friends, whose lives will forever be changed as well.  Everyone who knows this couple is fighting with questions, fears, concerns, even as we lift up our voices and our hearts out to God that He will intercede with a Miracle. 

We are struggling with doubts.  Why NOW?  Why THIS family?  What about those who will be left behind if the worst happens?  How do we encourage each other?  How do we see God in this?  How do we comfort the family?

How can I look in any of the family members faces, or even their closest friends and tell them that God is still in control, even knowing that it may mean that He will take someone away from them?  How do I answer those questions of why would God allow this to happen?  What kind of God lets this happen?

It is an all too familiar feeling.  Helplessness.  I have shared in the past of the untimely death of my cousin, a new Christian.  I am convinced NOW that the Lord did take my cousin Home, and there WAS a reason, though I am still uncertain what that reason is, and I may never know till I am safely Home as well.  I struggled for years to come to an understanding of not understanding.  But that was within myself.  How do I explain this to friends who are facing this now, are in the midst of this, and cannot even try to look to that future and the possibility of a reason behind a tragedy such as this?

My life verse comes to mind: Psalm 46 v 1~ The Lord is my refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble. 

Always this verse comes to mind when I am at a loss for anything else. 

Always when my prayers stop making sense to me, and I hopelessly give them over toThe Spirit, knowing that He will know what my heart is pleading, this verse comes to mind.  Sometimes a welcome reminder, sometimes a rough bandage over a festering wound, but always there.

I know this family is only at the beginning of a struggle, not just with life changes, maybe without a father, maybe with a changed father.  I know that there is absolutely nothing I can say that will ease the pain, the suffering, the struggles within the lives and the souls.  I know that even just telling them that I am still praying will do little in the way of comfort when it appears so bleak indeed.

I know my friends, who are much closer to this family than I, are struggling to see His Grace in this.  I am too!  I hugged one today, and I struggled to hold the tears back as she cried too.  God wouldn't allow this to happen would He? she cried.  As I hugged her tighter, all I could say is that I don't know.  I couldn't find it in me to tell her that His will is not our own.  His reasons are often with-held from us, and I have as much trouble accepting that from this distance as those right in the middle of the storm do.

I am searching the Scripture.  I have not been asked to help anyone in that regard, so I will not force it down any one's throat, but I am looking and bookmarking and trying to commit it to memory just in case.  And I am on my knees, begging with Him to bring us all through this closer to Him rather than further away.  I am begging for a Miracle, and for Peace, and for Understanding, no matter what the outcome will be.

My dear friends, I am now asking you, I know so many of you lead Bible studies, and do daily devotionals, and maybe some of you have been through a similiar storm yourself.  Please share with me the Words of Scripture that you call on, or that you found that brought you comfort.