With news recently about the new waves of mobilization that will occur this year, many of us, even Christians, have become more uneasy and worried about what the next few weeks will bring for us.
Here's the link to the news in Ukrainian http://www.radiosvoboda.mobi/a/26795864.html
I understand the steps that Ukraine is taking to defend itself, but I, like many others, will find it very hard to let go of our husbands, our sons, our fathers, and stay back helplessly as we send them off to a war which we do not know if they will come back from.
I know that God has all of this in his control, and he has promised that he does all for the good of those who love him. The hardest part for me is knowing that I am not spiritually and physically prepared right now to be without my husband. But God knows that. God knows how hard it would be for me, and so many other wives and mothers to let their men go to defend the nation.
My parents served in the military, and my mother in the Iraqi war, but I always believed as a young person that they would be fine.
Now I am older and I better understand the real horror of war, and a part of me is desperate to escape from all this. My mind tries to comfort me, thinking, "he will not be called because of his health", or "If we went, he wouldn't be in a dangerous area." And as these thoughts run through my head I realize that all I need to be comforted right now, or in my future hardships is the all-sufficient grace of God.
Today I listened to a sermon called, "How God Uses Suffering" on 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.
The pastor focused on the deep suffering and pain that Paul was going through because of this church, and his reaction to God's response to take away this suffering.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Paul was an ordinary man, who God did extraordinary things through by the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm sure that Paul's suffering in his life was worse than anything I have yet to encounter, and maybe greater than what I will encounter. So, it is striking to me that he says he is "content" with all of his hardships and problems. He knows that while he goes through all this stuff, that the power of Christ rests upon his weak body. This gives him strength and the ability to be content through it all.
Another verse, 2 Cor 9:8 says "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." which means that we will always have enough grace from God to go through every situation in life.
This filled me with a lot of hope, and helped me cast away the feelings of worry and despair that had started to cloud my vision.
I would ask you to pray for Ukraine: pray for peace, for an end to war, for as many soldiers to come home as possible, and that there will be no need for the future conscription of so much of the population who is not ready to go into the war. Pray for all of our hearts that we will trust our souls to God our faithful creator, knowing that to live is to live a life for Christ, but to die is even better because we would be with him...and let us really believe this great truth.
