God does not often show Himself
strong for us during a trial. Initially, this hurts our feelings and causes us
to doubt His love for us. However, God's love is exactly what prevents Him from
rescuing us from life's hurts and challenges.
God is teaching us that this life
is inconsequential in His larger scheme of the ages. His goal in our life is to
transform our body, soul and spirit from this humble, earthly state into
conformity with His glorious eternal plan for us.
He also shows us that all things,
even our health, finances, comfort, suffering, family and life are subject to
Him (Philippians 3:20-21). As His Spirit sanctifies us, we learn to submit to
His will and to surrender our entire life to His wisdom and direction.
This gives us hope in God, rather
than despair from overwhelming circumstances, thoughts and feelings. He is
constantly at work in our life, planting seeds for a miracle in all of our
trials.
We just have to patiently wait
for Him to reveal them to us. He longs for us to trust in Him alone, and to
desire His will instead of our own goals and plans.
We eventually learn that our
suffering in this world cannot be compared to the glory of living in God's
presence both now and throughout eternity (Romans 8:18).
Hardships are merely temporary
and fleeting, especially as we keep our eyes on Christ and the prize of our
inheritance of the Kingdom of God (Acts 17:11; 1 Peter 4:12-13; James 1:1-13).
Prayer:
Father God, help us to meditate
on the truth that You are in complete control of everything in this world.
Allow this fact to penetrate deep within our soul - our thoughts, choices and
feelings - so that we learn to trust You and not our human reasoning throughout
every moment of our day. We do not need to understand Your thoughts, because
they are so much more profound than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
You simply ask us to remain open
and willing to submit to and accept Your will and ways - even in the trials.
You renew our human spirit by making Your truths known to us. We are created in
Your image (Colossians 3:10), we have Your mind (1 Corinthians 2:16), and by
Your Spirit we learn to walk as You would walk in our shoes (1 John 2:20).
Thought for the Day:
As the reality of the fact that
our life is hidden with Christ in God becomes more of a reality every day, we
draw away from the world, the flesh and the devil and find our true joy only in
service to our King Jesus. - Romans 12:2
