Battle for Faith and Belief

Life in this world is a high cry for relief,
And a raging battle for faith and belief…

Does God hear us crying in our distress?
Do the Lord know all the pain we repress?
Does He see our aching hearts in every part?
And feel what we feel as we bow and kneel?

And is there the unheard voice by choice
Of heaven? Does our God refuse to listen
Underneath the glistening, blistering sun
As a day for another soul has just begun?

One scrambles in the brambles and briars
Of life rife with pain without gain of joy
Or peace and so she lays out her fleece
As an appeal for God to answer and heal

Is the very same God who bends an ear,
Hearing my sad weeping before sleeping,
Also meeting evil in the streets where
Destitute drunks and lonely prostitutes
Dream of breaking chains of horrid pain?

Does the Lord Almighty of creation recoil
When He hears angry shouts of turmoil?
When wars are fought and victory bought
With lovely young lives, can He be sought?
Is God in the midst of the raging storm?

God sees all, and surely recalls His mercy,
And by His right hand holds us lest we fall;
Tis the promise to all who call and believe
In the Sun who rose from repose of death
With healing in His wings; peace He brings.

Yes, life in this world is a high cry for relief,
An ongoing battle for any faith and belief…
But what is the answer for the very weary?
It is the Love of God who hung on Calvary!

Yes, He cares and daily shares in the calamity
Of our humanity in all of its pain and insanity;
And still He whispers, ‘You will walk miles
Of trials, but take heart! I’ve taken your part;
I have overcome not some, but all the world!’

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He was despised and rejected by others, and a man of sorrows, intimately familiar with suffering; and like one from whom people hide their faces; and we despised him and did not value him. Surely he has borne our sufferings and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, and struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was crushed for our iniquities, and the punishment that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53. 3-5 ISV)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4. 15 NRSV)

“I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16. 33 RSV)