Too Good Not to Pass On!
I wish I could say that I researched what I am going to share with you today, but I didn’t. However, I did go to my feed and read, Our Daily Bread and found this amazing story. In Zimbabwe, the unemployment. is high and conflicts run rampant. Within this volatile atmosphere are many sad and discouraged people. Hope seems to be lost, unless you find yourself at a Friendship Bench. Sitting at a Friendship Bench you get the unique opportunity to sit beside someone who not only cares, but also has years of experience and wisdom. For on this Friendship Bench sits an elderly woman who with compassion is able to listen and share encouragement and wisdom with all who come. Researchers who are looking at these Friendship Benches which are also in other parts of the world have found that hope rises after a sit-down on them.
What a remarkable idea! The Friendship Bench is not a new concept however. Moses established a Tent of Meeting where he went to talk to God. For years after, churches have been built, or created, under a tree, or in a huge cathedral. Their purpose is to provide a place where hope, encouragement and wisdom are available. Most of us take for grated the church today and fail to realize what a privilege we have to glean from its’ resources.
Here’s my story: I narrowly missed losing it all.
3 I was stumbling over what I saw with the wicked.
For when I saw the boasters with such wealth and prosperity,
I became jealous over their smug security…
12 These are the wicked ones I’m talking about!
They never have to lift a finger,
living a life of ease while their riches multiply.
13 Have I been foolish to play by the rules and keep my life pure?
14 Here I am suffering under your discipline day after day.
I feel like I’m being punished all day long.
15 If I had given in to my pain and spoken of what I was really feeling,
it would have sounded like unfaithfulness to the next generation.
16 When I tried to understand it all, I just couldn’t.
It was too puzzling—too much of a riddle to me.
17 But then one day I was brought into the sanctuaries of God,
and in the light of glory, my distorted perspective vanished. Psalm 73 (select verses) (TPT)
Yet, we don’t even have to be like David and go into a church building to get these results. For with Jesus’ death on the cross, the veil was torn in two and we now have access to talk to God, anytime, anywhere, and even better if we wait before Him, He will talk back to us!
But the moment one turns to the Lord with an open heart, the veil is lifted and they see.2 Corinthians 3:16(TPT)
Maria