Trials

Today’s focus will be on trials. Are you going through a trial today? Are there things going on around you that keep you feeling completely defeated? Each time our congregation meets together, our Pastor asks for prayer requests and there are so many requests mentioned. We have members in our church who are battling serious afflictions. Others have unspoken requests. Someone asked me recently why we should continue to pray for someone that is far into their diagnosis. It appears to them that God has already made up His mind as to how it will go. Many of us may feel this way. My short answer was that maybe our prayers need to shift in a different direction. Maybe we need to pray that that person will have a good day and that the caretakers will have patience and strength to continue the journey with them. I don’t have the answer to this, but I do know that we serve a God who is perfect and makes no mistakes. He is still in the miracle business today and if we ask, He will give us strength to go through our trials, although they may not end as we had hoped. May today’s quotes and poem bring you comfort as you face those trials that are difficult and beyond your control.

“Never be afraid to leave an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom

“Many of the mysteries of God-the heartaches, trials, disappointments, tragedies, and the silene of God in the midst of suffering will be revealed in heaven.” Billy Graham

Find Rest in the Master’s Hand

It may not be easy to count it all joy,

When a trial consumes our day,

But the Master would never have penned these words,

If He had planned it a different way.

God changes things to change things,

That’s where the testing begins.

Our faith goes through the consuming fire,

As He sifts through our weakness and sins.

Patience will be the fruit obtained,

As we yield to the trial at hand.

Though weary days may lie ahead,

Our Savior will help us stand.

Be anxious for nothing He bids our soul,

Through the trial just pray and wait.

The peace will come at just the right time,

Because our Savior is so wonderfully great.

When the chains are broken and the trial is set free,

It was the master who sent the test.

For to strengthen our faith and to help us to know,

Once it’s over, in Him, we’ll find rest.

 Kathy M. Crouch

“Count it all Joy when you fall into various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

James 1:2,3