"Please pray specially for me that I may not spoil His work and that Our Lord may show Himself — for there is such terrible darkness within me, as if everything was dead. It has been like this more or less from the time I started 'the work."
Mother Teresa, 1953 (personal letters)

“Such deep longing for God – and…repulsed – empty – no faith – no love – no zeal. – [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction – Heaven means nothing – pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything.”
Mother Teresa, 1956 (personal letters)

as more is revealed regarding the Mother Teresa letters, we see the glory of God revealed fold and fold. for someone so close to sainthood for all her strives for God, she was only human, going through valleys of shadows, pits of darkness when we feel so far away from God. for everything that she went through, it just eventually deepens our faith in Christ. i like the way Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary puts it - Salvation comes to those who believe in Christ – it is by grace we are saved through faith, but the faith that saves is not faith in faith, nor faith in our ability [to] maintain faith, but faith in Christ.

but like so often in our lives, we wonder if God is ever listening, or whether if He even does exist. King David of Israel who was a man after God's heart had the same prayer as Mother Teresa or maybe the same one that we may find ourselves crying late at night. O God, why have You forsaken me? (Psalm 13)

but for the times of doubt, King David always lifted his head to the heavens, acknowledging that our God is a God that saves. for each forsaken cry, he proclaimed more psalms of the greatness of our God, singing a new song to God (Psalm 40), God sustaining us (Psalm 55:22). King David even goes further to remind us in his songs/psalms to never lose hope in God, praising Him in all circumstances, leading us from the valleys of shadows of death (Psalm 23).

just like in http://www.rescuers.blogspot.com/, the emphasis was on the everlasting God, we are nothing more than never lasting. Isaiah 40:31 tells us to wait/trust/hope on the Lord for strength.

in response to the Mother Teresa letters, Rev. Joseph Neuner gave her three pieces of counsel – first, there was no human cure for what she had, so she shouldn’t feel personally guilty about it; second, feeling Jesus is not the only evidence of His presence, and the fact that she longed for God is a “sure sign” of his “hidden presence” in her life; and last, the feeling of absence was part of the “spiritual side” of her work for Jesus.

i like the phrase "hidden presence". sometimes we are not 'holding' on to Jesus, but He's still holding on to us and we don't realize it if we base the circumstances on our feelings alone.

the Mother Teresa letters shows us the true cost of following Jesus, to embrace the suffering and the Cross. although it is not wrong to go about with our feelings because that is how we are made as emotional humans. However, our faith is not anchored in our feelings (never lasting - observe our swift mood changes) but in the solid truth of the Gospel (a sure way to know Jesus). understand that we are weak, He is strong. we fluctuate in emotional highs and lows; He is constant. Those who come to Christ by faith are not kept unto Him by our faith, but by his faithfulness.

read the Word of God, let the truths flow through our lives. and like many things in life that is unfulfillable, Jesus is the solution. the times of darkness shows the way of a Saviour in our lives.
the shadows prove the sunshine (Jonathan Foreman, 2006).

ivan will be leading us in worship, before joel sharing to us the need of sharing this Good News of Hope of Jesus Christ to a world that needs it (Sept 15).

“I can’t express in words – the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me – for the first time in ….years – I have come to love the darkness – for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth.”
Mother Teresa, 1961 (in response to Neuner's counsel)