When the Road is Hardest - Trust

Why is it easiest to trust in God when we are content and happy with the situation dealt to us?  Why is it, when we receive encouragement in our times of joy, that as soon as dark clouds come our way and trials overtake us that we don’t seem to remember what God was showing us before?  This has happened to me, recently.  I read a book about a woman and the trials she went through and how she finally realized that all she needed was Christ, and it was such an encouragement to me.  But as soon as I was faced with something that I deemed a similar trial, I completely forgot about that book, the strength I had pulled from it, and the comfort I had received from it. 

Why do we do this?  Are we simply programmed that way - to be nothing but happy in good times and to see no ray of joy in our sad times?  No, this, my friend, is the sinfulness of mankind.  When we fall into diverse trials, we ought rather to glory, knowing that the trying of our faith worketh patience.  How can we do this?  It does seem as though it’s a nearly impossible task. 

Christ will not leave us in our hardest and darkest hour.  No, He is always within earshot, waiting for us to call on Him.  Are we such fair-weather friends to Him that we only are grateful for Him when we’re having a good day?  Dear friend, wake up!  Have you never sung the song I Need Thee Every Hour?  Have you never listened to the words?  How true it is!  We need Him in stormy weather just as much as we do in the sunshine.  We need Him in joy, and we need Him in pain.  He is the only one who can make our joy complete, who can comfort us to the fullest extent.

Our God will not leave us armourless.  He will prepare us for our trials ahead.  And if He doesn’t prepare us, we still have our battling weapons in prayer and God’s Word.  If we do not utilize these tools, how sad will be our defeat until we see, understand, and know that we must not give up the fight!  We must keep pressing on, and we must win that crown for Christ!  We were put on this earth to bring glory and honor to the Father’s name, to be lights in a dark world, to point the way to Christ.  How can we, when trials come our way, turn our backs on Him in obstinance?

But that’s just what we do, that’s just what I did.  I had even been prepared for this trial.  God had so graciously given this book to me to read and to relate to.  But when it came down to the final test, there was no thought of that book in my mind, or the lessons that were taught from it.  It’s like I had learned my school-work and when the test day came, I drew a complete and total blank.

In our times of trial, that's when we ought more than ever to look to Christ, to trust that He has put us in the very place He wants us to be.  The easiest thing to do is to turn away and say that God doesn't care, that it doesn't mean anything to Him that we are going through a hard time.  How could He possibly when He's the one Who put us there?  Oh friend, please realize that this is exactly what the devil wants us to think.  Yes, it is true that God puts us where we are and end up, but can't you see that He does it for our own good?  If not at the beginning of the trial, surely when you come through to the other side, you can see at least a part of God's purpose.  If only we would remember that every trial has a purpose, that all things work together for good to them that love God, perhaps we would have a better attitude about these things.  But all too often, we forget, and we run in to that thought that God really doesn't care.

I read the following excerpt from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening devotional this morning and thought that it would go well with this post:

"When a tear is wept by thee, think not that God doth not behold; for, 'Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.'  Thy sigh is able to move the heart of Jehovah; thy whisper can incline His ear unto thee; thy prayer can stay His hand; thy faith can move His arm.  Think not that God sits on high taking no account of thee.  Remember that however poor and needy thou art, yet the Lord thinketh upon thee.  For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him."

So, don't stay in your dismal state, which is the mistake I made.  Refresh yourself in Christ, your Redeemer.  For, He certainly does care and wants you to put all of your trust in Him so He can comfort you in the richest possible way.