Friends and Emotions

Romans 12:15, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep."

It's amazing how having multiple social connections can make a person feel so many emotions on the same day.  Today, that's me.  
My best friend told me about sad news from their pastor friend's family.  Due to conflict in the area where he lives, some of his family is leaving to go to what they hope is a safer location.  How they need prayer!
My friend Johnna is beginning a courtship at the tender age of 18 years old.  Every text conversation we have invariably centers on the excitement of this time in her life.  She's so happy and in love, but she needs my prayers for her for wisdom and purity as she and her young man get to know each other better.
My friend Gracia is getting married in less than a month, after being single for awhile.  It seems unreal that the Lord has finally brought her to this time in her life and I am both super-excited for her joy and sad thinking about her moving to a different part of the country!  She and her fiance need prayer as they face this new stage of life with all its stress and wonderfulness.
My friend Larissa is experience a great fight inside her heart as she realizes the need to forgive certain people in her life.  She's seen so many hurts and so much pain. My heart hurts that anyone would have ever mistreated her, yet I pray that she, for her own sake and for the glory of God, can come to the freeing place that is forgiveness and be able to release her bitterness into the capable, loving hands of our Lord.  

All these dear friends!  What a range of emotions!  Sobered and saddened for the pain of separation for this pastor's family and the heartache of conflict in their area, happy for the possibility of a godly man for my dear Johnna and cautiously wanting the best for her, joyful for Gracia's upcoming marriage with its blessings and prayerful for the accompanying transitions she and her fiance will face, longing for a victory for Larissa and hurting with her in her heartache.

I am not the only one to have felt such a gamut of feelings.  In Isaiah 53:4, I read of Jesus, "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."  My Jesus knew conflict and sorrow, He knew joy at a the wedding of an acquaintance, He knew torture and mistreatment.  He knew the many emotions we know and what's even more amazing, He carries our hurts for us!  What a refuge I find in Him when the emotions of life are too much for me!