Three Truths that Turn Trials into Triumph

You can be riding down life’s victory road when out of nowhere you run into a pothole of problems. Sound familiar? Almost every day we are confronted with some troublesome trials that test our faith.  Some are minor, others major.  Some rock our boat while others send us into a death spin. 

So how do we get through these problems quickly and without shaking our faith or tarnishing our testimony?  The following three truths can help smooth those patches of life’s rough roads. 

1. God is in Control

The lot is cast into the lap,But its every decision is from the Lord  Proverbs 16:33 (NKJV)

What appears to be chance or bad luck is not! When you acknowledge that God has sovereign rule over all human affairs, then the ability to see God’s hand working is much easier.  The twist and turns that life often takes can cause us to doubt and fear but when you realize nothing is out of control, God is still in charge then the doubts and fears vanish.  

2. God Never Stops Loving.  

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)

God’s love is both everlasting and unconditional. His love is not far away but close at hand. 

“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,“And not a God afar off? Jeremiah 23:23 (NKJV)

During troubled times rest and be assured that God continues to love you and has not departed from you. You are not alone.

3. God Understands

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV)

Remember God can identify with your problem. Since Jesus, God the Son, walked on earth as both man and God and experienced life, you can find comfort in the fact you are not facing this trial or these trials alone. Find strength and wisdom from your Lord knowing that he understands sorrow, hunger, disappointment, dread, and all of your feelings – and that He cares! So “casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NKJV) walk tall with the assurance that you will overcome this trial.

This Week's Freebie The Essentials of Prayer Clicking Here (pdf file)

The Key Word is PURPOSE

“A life without a purpose is a languid, drifting thing. Every day we ought to renew our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let us make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is nought.” -Thomas A` Kempis

Moses was comfortable tending sheep for his father-in-law until he met the bush that burned yet was not consumed.  For forty years after fleeing Egypt, Moses’ life was on hold – without clarity, purpose or direction.  Then God spoke from the bush and Moses’ life would never be the same.  He had purpose and direction.

Saul was a man driven by purpose, but it was the wrong purpose.  He needed his zeal redirected.  When the Lord spoke to him on the road to Damascus, Saul became the Apostle Paul with a new and righteous purpose.  His missionary journeys would change the world. 

Like Moses, many people are comfortably sailing through life with no driving purpose or have lost focus on their divine calling.  Others, like Saul, are spending their energy and life pursuing the wrong purpose and never seeing their greater calling.   

If you find yourself in one of these schools, then look to the Lord Jesus for he has a noble purpose for your life. 

Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord…Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. (2Timothy 1:8a, 9)  
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

May we suggest this blog article: Who Knows?

You Are In Good Hands*

Life will go much smoother if we remember that we are in God’s care. His providence will prevail; and because we know that God’s desire is for our good, we can rest in peace knowing that eventually everything will work for our good.

Such knowledge is often beyond our understanding; but God has not asked us to understand all of his ways. He has asked us to simply trust Him. His path may take us through deep waters and dark valleys but we need only to keep our eyes on the Lord who shines through the darkness to find the assurance we need. It is God who is in charge. Trust Him! 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? -Matthew 7:11

If you enjoy Wisdom Tidbits, you will love 

For His Glory: A Kaleidoscope of Wisdom

Check it Out!

Being Where God Wants You

Editor's Note: Today's thought is based on all of chapter 17 of 1 Kings. (1 Kings 17)

I have commanded the ravens . . . a widow women . . . there. 1 Kings 17:4, 9.

WE must be where God desires. — Elijah spoke of himself as always standing before the Lord God of Israel. He deemed himself as much a courtier in the royal palace as Gabriel (Luke i. 19). And he could as distinctly stand before God when hiding beside Cherith, or sheltering in the widow's house at Zarephath, as when he stood erect on Carmel, or listened to the voice of God at Horeb. Wherever you go, and whatever ministry you are called to 
undertake, glory in this, that you never go to any greater distance from God.

If we are where God wants us to be, He will see to the supply of our need. It is as easy for Him to feed us by the ravens as by the widow woman. As long as God says, Stay here, or there, be sure that He is pledged to provide for you. Though you resemble a lonely sentinel in some distant post of missionary service, God will see to you. The ravens are not less amenable to his command than of old: and out of the stores of widow women He is as able to supply your need as He did Elijah's, at Zarephath.

How often God teaches best in seclusion and solitude! It is by the murmuring brooks of nature that we have our deepest lessons. It is in the homes of the poor that we are fitted for our greatest tasks. It is beside couches where children suffer and die, that we receive those preparations of the heart which avail us when the bugle note summons us to some difficult post.

God leads through death to life. — It was needful that the child should die, that sin might be remembered and dealt with; but through Death's portal the trio entered a richer, fuller life. Fear not that gateway! F. B. Meyer