Though I do not at the present moment have my feet to the refiners fire, I have heard it said that either you are coming out of a trial or heading into one. My sister Jennifer has said, “What we are going through, we are growing through.”
I love the book ‘Streams in the Desert’ by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. While perusing in her book today I found a devotion that has blessed me. I have included it below just in case there is any one out there who could also be blessed by it.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1
The question often comes, “Why didn’t He help me sooner?” It is not His order. He must first adjust you to the trouble and cause you to learn your lesson from it. His promise is, “I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. He must be with you in the trouble first all day and all night. Then He will take you out of it. This will not come till you have stopped being restless and fretful about it and become calm and quiet. Then He will say, “It is enough.”
God uses trouble to teach His children precious lessons. They are intended to educate us. When their good work is done, a glorious recompense will come to us through them. There is a sweet joy and a real value in them.
He does not regard them as difficulties but as opportunities.
Not always OUT of your troublous times,
And the struggles fierce and grim,
But IN-deeper IN-to our sure rest,
The place of our peace, in Him.
Annie Johnson Flint
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PART II Tomorrow!
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