What is God doing in taking you through times of uncertainty, trial, illness, tyranny, and broken relationships? God is laying bare the very issues of life. He slows us down or stops us at such times, so that we can consider very carefully what matters most in life. All pretense and superficiality flee in times of distress. The Lord reveals to us at such times who/what it is that we are trusting in: our good health, our job, our bank account,
our family, our freedom, ourselves, or in Jesus Christ.
Everything except Jesus is perishable and temporal and you may lose it, no matter how tightly you grip and hold onto it (you will certainly lose it at death). Only Jesus Christ can never be taken from you, and only He will see you through uncertain and distressing times that lay before you. We may know and believe that the Lord is my Shepherd, and I shall not want (lack), but when the Lord removes those earthly props in which we hope, we quickly find (for our own good) how weak we really are in ourselves.
Let us learn today from someone Jesus taught how to actually grow (not die) and how to gain and not lose as he passed through times of suffering, loss, distress, and uncertainty: the Apostle Paul. |
