I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Song of Solomon 4:16:

"Awake, O north wind, And come, O south! Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits."

The wind of hardship, the wind of pain and suffering. When an orange is on a tree it looks beautiful, it's got a lovely colour, but that's as far as it goes. You take that orange, and you squeeze it, and you crush it into a glass, and then and only then, can you taste its delicious flavour. When you go into a rose garden, those beautiful magnificent roses are so pretty to look at, but it's only when you take the leaf, and you break that leaf, that you can smell the beautiful perfume that comes from that rose. Oftentimes, suffering and pain bring a man or a woman into the fullness of what God created them for. I'm not suggesting a minute that God causes it but God works through it.

A man came to see me a couple of months ago and he shared his story. He was a hugely successful man. He lived in a country north of our borders. He had everything that he wanted. He was a wonderful sportsman, he had plenty of money. He had achieved lots of wonderful things - wine, women and song as they say. Then one day he was falsely accused of murdering somebody, and they put him in a maximum security jail for no less than ten years, but he told me that through it all he found the true meaning of life. Yes, he found Jesus Christ as a result of that hardship, that pain and that suffering.

Today maybe you are going through a hard time, you cannot even understand why. I want to encourage you my dear friend just to hang in there and to trust the Lord because something beautiful will come out of it.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.