“God always works in the opposite spirit as our enemy”, my friend shared last week as he visited our home. He and his wife have been missionaries in Jerusalem for fifteen years. In the summer of 2000 we visited them. Shortly after our departure, this city, quite acquainted with violence, erupted. Despite such dangerous circumstances, these friends and other missionaries decided to remain in Jerusalem. They have been able to demonstrate love in the midst of hate, generosity in the midst of selfishness, and peace in the midst of war. Such is God’s strategy.
God calls His children to replace natural fear with bold faith that enables “normal” men and women to be His witnesses… even while the world around them is falling apart. In 1947, another missionary who had lived in Jerusalem fifteen years had to make a decision. Hannah Hurnard was one of only a handful of Christian workers who remained in the region as war broke out. Even through the Siege of Jerusalem in 1948, Hannah was able to show Jews and Arabs the loving Hand of a God who tells His “little flock” to “fear not”.
Through her experiences, God allowed Hannah to write HINDS’ FEET ON HIGH PLACES, a brilliant allegory of a Christian’s journey through all kinds of trials to reach the Father’s heights of joy, love, and victory. Hannah admitted the main character of the book reflected many of her struggles as a young person who was constantly tormented with all types of fears. But Much-Afraid met the Good Shepherd who promised that He could turn her greatest weaknesses into something altogether opposite. The Good Shepherd gave Much-Afraid two companions on her journey to the High Places. Sorrow and Suffering walked with her through danger and difficulty. At journey’s end, the Good Shepherd’s promise was fulfilled and a transformed follower with a new name wondered if those she left behind could also be rescued:
“Can nothing be done for them down there in the Valley? Must my Aunt Dismal be left unhelped, and poor Spiteful and Gloomy too?… If the Shepherd could deliver me from all my fears and sins, couldn’t he deliver them from all the things which torment them?”
“Yes” said Joy (who had been Sorrow). “If he can turn Sorrow into Joy, Suffering into Peace, and Much-Afraid into Grace and Glory, how can we doubt that he could change Pride and Bitterness and Resentment and Self-Pity too, if they would but yield to him and follow him?”
We have good news to share.
“I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13
“The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go to the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19