28. Surely this can't be right?

ONE DAY AT A TIME
Meditations for Carers

28. Surely this can’t be right?

Jeremiah 29.11

Some days I wake up calm, even cheerful about my life. More often I’m floundering in the morass and the thought pops up, ‘Surely this can’t be right? Surely God can’t want this for me?’ This is a nasty trick of the opposition to get us to wallow in a pit of treacly misery and descend into hopelessness and depression. In no time I’m focused solidly on myself, how bad it is for me and so on . . . and I’ve subtracted God from the equation – because surely this can’t be his will for me? He couldn’t be that cruel.

Where I need to be is back on solid ground, trusting that God truly is in charge of my life and that everything will work out. And the only bridge between the miserable pit my negative thinking dumps me in and that safe solid ground of reassurance is Jesus. It’s an extreme example but I remember the thief on the cross next to Jesus, who must have been reviewing one very misspent life – and Jesus was able to reassure him: ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’ Somehow that gets my worries into perspective, and I can pick up my cross and continue in the knowledge that I am where God wants me to be...


Taken from One Day at a Time: Meditations for Carers by Dorothy M.Stewart