Emergen-C?

Recently I was in a bit of a debate with some friends about whether the popular "emergen-c" works to prevent sickness or quicken healing once you've already come down with something. Emergen-C promises to boost your immune system with vitamin C and other vitamins simply by taking it once daily. Some think it is a hoax but some say it works. I thought it was funny that the friends who had never tried it were the ones opposed to it and the ones who had were in favor of it. I realized that you really can't make a decision as to whether it works or not unless you've given it a try...that is see if the promises really are true.

Much like a physical ailment, we as Christians are going to go through times of spiritual "ailments" so to speak as well. What I mean is there are going to be times throughout the Christian life when we go through hard times, trials, or suffering in order that we might be refined as 1 Peter 1:7 says, "These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

We have "emergen-c"s in our Christian lives throughout our walk. Often times in our innate selves we are quick to run to the phone to call a friend, cry on the shoulder of a family member, or even mask the pain within ourselves. Sometimes we don't think that God's promises are for sure going to hold firm when we are in the depths of despair. We fail to realize that we have the source of all joy at our fingertips...the Living God is our Father, our friend, our Savior and He is living, real, and tangible. We have his Word to dig deep into and be encouraged, we have His Spirit indwelling within us enabling us to find strength in the weakness, and we have the ability to cry out to Him in prayer through the cross of Christ.

The Psalms are an amazing collection of encouragement. It is during times of suffering or despair that I have found myself deep within their truths and holding firm to the promises God lays so clearly out within this powerful book. When we are in despair we can find joy, when we are hurting we can find comfort, and when we are confused we can find peace through the Word of God. Just like the common cold has its remedies, God has given us the perfect tools to live a life where we can as Psalm 35:9 says "Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation." If we come to Christ in our emergen-cs we can be confident that His promises are true and He is faithful!! For those of you who have never experienced this be encouraged by someone who has run to the foot of the cross and found help in the emergencies of life...in fact in every day of life and run to Him in your emergen-c!