Raindrops

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and that of the Gospel will save it.” Mark 8:34-35

This is the very Bible passage that made me stop reading my Bible in High School. I could not for the life of me understand why Jesus required us to deny ourselves and take up our cross. I was always praying that God treat me gently. I did not like any trials and I would constantly pray God protect me from them. 

My friend wrote this on his Facebook wall: 

May this be your prayer today: "I'd rather go through tough times with God than good times without Him." He alone matters.

Then someone commented, “Not so tough naman sana.”

The thing is God’s highest desire is to bring us home to heaven. He will do anything, even to allowing that His Son be crucified so we can be with Him one day. But obviously we can’t enter heaven with greedy, selfish hearts. He has to do something about that. And that is where the cross comes in. It’s all for our highest good. God wants us to be molded and transformed to be citizens of heaven with good character, people of honor. After all, we’re going to be Royalty, sons and daughters of the King of Kings! That’s why He uses other people, like husbands, wives, office mates, relatives, etc. to “sandpaper” us. That’s why He allows circumstances like sickness, quarrels, the bad economy, etc. to prune us. 

And that is why one of my favorite songs is “Blessings” from Laura Story (https://youtu.be/ICnct8THNag): 

We pray for blessings

We pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering

And all the while, You hear each spoken need

Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom

Your voice to hear

And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love

As if every promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while, You hear each desperate plea

And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us

And when darkness seems to win

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not, this is not our home

It's not our home

'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?

What if Your healing comes through tears?

And what if the thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy

And what if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are Your mercies in disguise?