Tenderness 3:16

the minute I read the phrase I knew I would be writing about. there was something innocent about the way it sat on the page unaffected by all the other words, seemingly as an after thought. It ended the page and the chapter and I would only understand the significance of that after I began writing this.

the book is max lucado’s 3:16 the numbers of hope. the name of the chapter is hope for the hard heart. tenderness is just a prayer away….. it echoed in my head from which things were we seeking to find tenderness from. Tenderness from the pains and abuses our hearts endure, from the reality of not having money to pay for the barest of essentials, from the helplessness watching loved ones struggle with addictions.; from the weakness which our bodies endure through stresses and anxieties.with the struggle to control that which is beyond our capabilities.

in your life God has proven Himself time and again, daily, hourly, without fail, in every and all situations and conditions. Without fail, He has answered our prayers and provided for us in every way.

His tenderness is just a prayer away and yet, we don’t ask, thinking instead that we can overcome, overachieving to provide answers for fear, loneliness, oppression and frustration. Like the disciples before us we set sail on the sea of problems only to get further into the storm, winds tossing us about from one wave of indecision to another, water crashing over the bow of our hearts, soaking us in anger, bitterness and lost hopes.

We know the accounts of God’s miracles and faithfulness to His promises, some of us have seen first hand, His work in our own lives and the lives of others around us. In this case, the groundwork is being set, “For God so loved the world”, this world in all its chaos and mayhem, in the broken lives and loves we live, He loves us to provide tenderness for everything that needs to be consoled.

It could have been any sensation that was corrected by prayer, but the use of the word tenderness helps define and understand the level of detail He provides for us. The definition of the word tenderness also seems to magnify and highlight a multitude of engagements. The duality in this word provides both the stimulus and the response. On the stimulus side it allows for fragile egos, delicate sensitivities and touchy temperaments, while it also provides gentile, mild, considerate, fond and loving responses.

a deeper study into the family of words indicates being susceptible to physical, emotional or spiritual injury. Further indications add vulnerable, untoughened and sore followed by responses of protection, warmth and caring. So as haphazard as it seemed to use the phrase “tenderness is a prayer away”, it becomes a doctrine of faithful living.

Understand that the well of tenderness is overflowing, continuously providing an endless flow of balm to soothe with the same tenderness it creates. At the center of the fountain is a figure that cannot be cloaked in darkness, for He is the Light of Hope, our never ending help in time of need.

Tenderness is but a prayer of belief away, given to us by the One we pray yo. That is the promise He makes, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but instead have an everlasting life of tenderness….