Just a thought by coppi

Just a thought by coppi

Howard Rutledge came to appreciate his time as a POW in Vietnam. He wrote, “After twenty-eight days of torture, I could remember I had children but not how many. I prayed for strength. During long periods of enforced reflection, it became so much easier to separate the important from the trivial. My hunger for spiritual food soon outdid my hunger for steak. It took prison to show me how empty life is without God.

I read the above this morning and wondered why sometimes it takes hardship to realize life without God is empty.  In Hebrews chapter 11, I read about the faith of so many of the apostles, prophets and people of faith and how they stood strong when they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And why would they endure such suffering,  I presume like Howard Rutledge, they had found that life without God would be empty so in faith they believed that God would do what he promised….and, he did with the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.