One of the ways in which Jesus is dear
to Christians who pray is in His presence to them in times of trouble. For
some, Jesus is a brother and companion, the one who accompanies them, who walks
along the way with us, who has been where humans have been. He is the Jesus
whom the Gospel of John presents as weeping for the death of His friend
Lazarus, whom He loved; who sweats blood during the agony in the garden and
wrestles with the will of God and the evil of the world, when all His friends
have fallen asleep; who later that day cries out on the cross. For others,
Jesus is the one who lifts burdens, who takes it from us so we do not have to
bear it on our own. For many, He is both. Either way, Jesus is presence… Jesus
is God made visible, God made human -- God close to our trials and our everyday
life, not distant or uninvolved. This is not the fix-all God or the magician
God. The God to whom or with whom we pray in our sufferings is not God as
explanation, but God as companion -- a God who suffers and knows suffering…
God as companion in our suffering is
both the One who suffers with us and the One on whom we lean. Psalm 46 says,
“God is our refuge and strength, a vey present help in trouble.”
-- Jane Redmont in “When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life”
#4841
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