What Are My Trials Doing For Me?

I've just been thinking today and tried to write it down.

Sometimes it bugs me when I read about Job. It makes me mad at the devil, but, it also makes me ashamed to think that I would ever complain about my own trials.Mine seem so small and few, in comparison to Job’s.

It's good to keep things in the right perspective. The reality is, we all go through hard times. Some seem to go through more than others. Some trials are harder and some longer, and... each person's trials are big to them.

Isn't it a comfort to know that God has promised to never leave us?

The thing is... How would we ever know what God can do if we never have to trust Him? And... how would we ever know the condition or strength of our faith, if we never had to exercise it?

Have you ever felt like Job did?

“Behold I go forward, but he is not there; I go backward but I cannot perceive him: On my left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand,
that I cannot see him.” Job 23:8-9

This is a hard trial to go through. Only a real heart of faith in God can say the next verse and really mean it.

“But he knoweth the way I take: and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

I may not know why God is allowing certain things to happen. There may be times I don’t "feel" Him helping me. But my heart of faith believes what God said.

He will never leave us. God will answer...

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." God wants to show us things about Himself that we never knew before. That is such a precious thought.

I don’t want to miss those things because I was kicking and screaming all the way through a trial.

Psalm 46:10 tells us... “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Don't worry. Don't get discouraged... don't even try to fix anything. Just be still and meditate on God. Our God is able!

I have a long way to go. But, I really want to know my God better. I want to trust Him more
and I want to love Him and praise Him as much as I can this side of heaven.

David expresses it best in Psalm 73:25. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon thee earth that I desire beside thee.”

Even in our darkest trials, God has been so good to us. I can never say that enough.

Just a thought...It requires eleven tons of pressure on a piano's strings for it to be tuned. God will tune you to perfect harmony with heaven's theme if you will withstand the strain.

Dianne