For Bearers of Hurts and Disappointments

So much of faith's fight is fought in the hidden battlefield of the heartwhere often God alone is witness of its tender triumphs and death-defying defeats!God's call to faithfulness is not for the faint of heart nor for half-hearted endeavors!Faithfulness is an all-in fight to the finishoften riddled with hurts and disappointments. 1 Cor.9:24-26Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. This poem began when dawn dripped from coral eaves... Now the day is almost done awash with rain and leaves... Where hurt and disappointment rakes relentless talons throughWhere we wrestle with sacred stakes witnessed by only YouWhere we are often tested by the fires of dismayOur motives tried and tempted by the liar’s merchant swayWhere touch cannot make manifest, nor visage interveneThe substance of hope’s hidden quest of evidence unseenWhere the strait gate which faith is warned to press and strive towardBids us to endure hardness like a soldier for You, Lord Bids us to put on the full armour only You supplyBids us to be on guard for the Charmer of cunning plyBids us to lay our all upon altars of sacrificeBids us to heed the call without aversion to the priceBids us to bear love’s cross in faith’s response of gratitudeWhere what appears as loss on earth is but Heaven’s preludeWhere hurt and disappointment clings to grace that will not failWhile we wrestle with Reckonings that Your face will unveil Grace crowns the law of Moses with the law of love’s decreeKnowing Your love that chose us is the law that sets us freeThat the gift of salvation no mortal creed can undoThere is no condemnation for all who are found in YouKnowing You are not mocked; and that we will reap what we sowKnowing not how we talk but walk is the fruit that will grow/showWhile hurt and disappointment undo and refine the partThat only You bear witness to; the throne room/war room of the heart Lord, there is nothing hid from You; nothing impossibleWhere hurts and disappointments rue, You work the miracleWhere transformation’s work is wrought, not on a bed of easeBut in the thick of what is not according to our ‘please’As we yield fear and dread and doubt to faith to undergirdAnd do not take one step without reliance on Your WordWhere hurts and disappointments hone the heart, so oft betrayedTo fix its hope and trust upon the Cornerstone You laid © Janet Martin