Some of you who read these lines are held in the vicelike grip of sin’s confusion. The despair of loneliness has settled down upon your soul, and at this very moment you are asking the question: “Is life worth living?”
For scores of people who write to our office, life has ceased to be worth living. To all of you I have good news. God did not create you to be a defeated, discouraged, frustrated, wandering soul, seeking in vain for peace of heart and peace of mind. He has bigger plans for you. He has a greater life for you. The answer to your problem—however great it is—is as near as your Bible, as simple as first-grade arithmetic and as real as your heartbeat.
The Bible says: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).
The Bible teaches that “Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).
Upon the authority of God’s Word, I declare unto you that Christ is the answer to every baffling perplexity that plagues mankind. In Him is found the cure for care, a balm for bereavement, a healing for our hurts and a sufficiency for our insufficiency.
Many of you are living lives of unbearable loneliness. You may be in a great city like New York or Los Angeles, but you are lonely in the midst of the crowd. The world to you is shut off, and you are shut out. Social barriers have prevented you from doing what you wish to do. Personality barriers thwart and hinder you. You live in a world of blighting solitude. Or perhaps your companion of many years has suddenly been taken away, and you are left alone in a big, empty house. Loneliness is no respecter of persons. It invades the palace as well as the hovel.
Queen Victoria said after the death of her husband, Albert: “There is no one left to call me ‘Victoria.’” Even though she was a queen, she knew the pain of loneliness.
Many turn to drink because of loneliness. Others lose their sanity because of loneliness. Many commit suicide because of the despair of loneliness.
But thousands have found Christ to be the answer for their loneliness. Jesus said: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
The Hebrew children were not alone when they were hurled into the fiery furnace of persecution. There was one with them like unto the Son of God.
Moses wasn’t alone in the Midian Desert when God came to comfort him and call him to a wider ministry. Elijah wasn’t alone at the cave when God came near and spoke in a still, small voice.
Paul and Silas were not alone in the Philippian jail when God came down and gave them a song at midnight.
Whoever you are, Christ can give you comfort and companionship.
Whatever color, race or creed, your heart yearnings are the same. The lonely, aching spot can be filled by Christ if you will open your heart and let Him in.
Christ is the Answer to Sorrow
There are thousands of you who have turned to God, but you are still carrying your burdens, when God invites you: “Cast all your care on Me, for I care for you” (see 1 Peter 5:7).
You who must go through the valley of the shadow of death, you who must say goodbye to those whom you have loved, you who suffer privation and misery, you who are unjustly persecuted for righteousness’ sake, take heart, take courage. Christ is more than adequate for sorrow.
The Apostle Paul, who suffered as much as any person who ever lived, said: “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever” (2 Timothy 4:18). Diseased, afflicted, scarred, bruised and battered by persecution, he held no bitterness but found in Christ a sufficiency for sorrow.
I talked to a man once who had lost his wife and three children in a fire. No man could have more reason to be bitter or show his sorrow than he. He gripped my hand with a strong grip. His face was smiling, and he said: “Tell the world that the grace of God is sufficient for even the worst sufferer.”
Christ is the Answer to Suffering
Sickness, sorrow and sin all contain the hiss of the serpent and are the result of the fall of man in the garden.
Sickness is a byproduct of transgression. But that by no means indicates that Christians are never afflicted. The Bible says: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Psalm 34:19).
Job was afflicted. Paul had an infirmity. Lazarus was sick. And good people down across the centuries have been promised no immunity from disease and infirmity. Many people have asked me, “Why do Christians suffer?” Rest assured that there is a reason for Christian people being afflicted. One reason God’s people suffer, according to the Bible, is that it is a disciplinary, chastening and molding process.
The Bible says: “Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law (Psalm 94:12, KJV).
Again the Scripture says: “For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:12).
From these Scriptures we learn that the chastening of affliction is a step in the process of our full and complete development. It is a love tap from our Heavenly Father to show us that we have wandered from the pathway of duty.
Affliction can also be a means of refining and of purification. Many people have come forth from the furnace of affliction more beautiful and more useful. We would never have had the songs of Fanny Crosby had she not been afflicted with blindness. George Matheson would have never given the world his immortal song “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go” had it not been for his passing through the furnace of affliction.
Job, who was called upon to suffer as few men have suffered, said: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
Affliction is the blast furnace in which saints are smelted. It is in the midst of adversity that their true worth is revealed.
The Bible says: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Your sickroom can become a spiritual gymnasium where your soul is exercised and developed. Sickness is one of the “all things” that work together for good to those that love God. Don’t resent it. Don’t be embittered by it. You who are lying on hospital beds realize today that it is the love-stroke of a loving Heavenly Father who loves you so much He will not pamper you but will bring all things for your ultimate good.
Christ is the Answer to Discouragement
This is a world of thwarted hopes, broken dreams and frustrated desires. But Christ can take discouragement and despondency out of your life. He can put a spring in your step and give you a thrill in your heart and a purpose in your mind. Optimism and cheerfulness are products of knowing Christ.
The Bible says: “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
Christ is the wellspring of happiness. He is the fountainhead of joy “whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).
Christ is the Answer to the Problem of Sin
The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Bible indicates that all the troubles of the world stem from the fact that men have broken the laws of God. There is a penalty for breaking God’s law, and that penalty is eternal death and banishment from His presence. However, the Scripture says that in Christ we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).
And the Bible says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Is your conscience smitten today because of sin in your life? Have you had the uncomfortable feeling that you are not in tune with God? Has the Holy Spirit been convicting you of the fact that you have broken the laws of God and need a Savior?
Why not open your heart’s door and let Christ come into your life? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. The Scripture quotation marked KJV is taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version.