Life brings with it Sorrows and Trials

Life brings with it Sorrows and Trials

I have a high school friend who lost his daughter to cancer, and he has shared with me if there had been a way to change places with her he would have.  But often when we experience such unexpected sorrow our first and right thing to do is pray, but often when it does not go to our liking, the old enemy of our soul tells us God does not care.  A book that has helped me understand the ways of an invisible God, and how He the Creator cares for His creation is “Faith is the Victory” by Buell H. Kazee.

Last night, I was not able to go to sleep and in those times it seems as if my mind will not shut down, I prayed for everyone and still sleep would not come.   At midnight I got up and went into the living room so as not to wake Jan.  I was going to read my Bible, but it was in my office in the bedroom, so I opened “Faith is The Victory,” it is not a new read, it is one of those books you will read more than once and yet with my schedule I’ve been working on the reread for months.  I want to share page 113 and some of 114 with you, for after reading this I was so thankful I was not able to sleep and shared that with the Father when I came back to bed.

“Remember, you are God’s child, in a world of sin, and you do not know the way.  Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and you will need Him in all three entities.

So, the first conclusion about your problem is, don’t try to get rid if it until you have looked into it thoroughly.  If, after you have submitted it to God, He takes it away, all right.  But it may be something He has permitted to come into your life to bless you.  Don’t handle it rashly.  Remember, you have trusted all to Him; now try to practice it.  It is His business, and His alone, now, what happens to you.  You may be contradicting His plans and thus robbing yourself of the great blessing He has for you.

We cannot over-emphasize this principle.  When you cross Jordan, you have surrendered all to Him.  How keep dependent on Him, and move only at His direction.  When you don’t know what to do, wait until the pillar of cloud and fire move on.

If God is going to work His character in us, He must begin with tribulation.  Trials are the common lot of His children, for in them is our spiritual education wrought.  The children of Israel had not been long across the Red Sea until they came into a desert place where they were seized with a thirst for water.  God permitted this so that they might learn that He could turn their trial into something good.  It is easy for us to see how something we call good, can be good for us; but how can the adverse things work together for our good?  The secret is that that which pleases us merely keeps us like we are; that which is unpleasant to us may serve to change us.

  

And here comes a great lesson.  God is not trying to change His ways to suit us; He is trying to change us to suit His ways.  Since we are wrong, and He is right, anything that simply satisfies our fleshly tastes and desires will not help us because it brings no change in us.  The flesh will never love Jesus.  Nobody likes to walk the way of Christ while the flesh dictates his likes and dislikes.”

Let me share one last remark from page 115, “And so this brings us to an important principle: faith is not to get rid of our trials, it is to help us use them for our good and God’s glory.”

From the Back Porch,

 Bob Rice