In Times of Trials He Remains

Trials Will Come But The Lord Remains With Us At All Times

Published by Deborah Negron – Child of God. In his service.
March 2, 2023

Do not be afraid of sudden terror, Nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, And will keep your foot from being caught. Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, When it is in the power of your hand to do so. For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, But His secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, But He blesses the home of the just. Surely He scorns the scornful, But gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, But shame shall be the legacy of fools.
Proverbs 3:25‭-‬27‭, ‬32‭-‬35

Driving home from church the other night, coming off the highway, and getting on to my street the car stalled. Then it completely shut off in the middle of the road. Frightening.

The News comes unexpectedly. The diagnosis comes and surprises us. The thing we might have not thought of comes and catches us unawares.

The risk, the fear, the anxiety comes. It is part of life. All of us have faced moments in which we cannot understand hiw or why such a sad thing has happened.

The hope we have id greater than our fear.
The strength we receive comes in the midst of our turmoil and weakness.
We do not lean on our own understanding. We trust and hope and believe in the God of rhe universe. He ia able to sustain us in the evil day. In the day where our sorrow is deep and our fears increase. When loss is inevitable and the waiting is torture.

Oh Lord, in the midst of trials remind us that your strength is made perfect in our weakness.

The Apostel Paul knew adversity. He knew trials and faced them frequently.
But he prayed through every situation. Despite his prayer though, calamity came. Despite his trust in the Lord persecution and struggles came.

As believers we are not exempt from hardship. Nor are we to claim it and have it just because we prayed.

There are greater purposes in our adversities. We read,

Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10

Paul learned to seek for the purpose of God in the issues of life. He learned the secret of having continuing faith, persevering faith. A sense of “stickability”.
No, I don’t think this is a word that will last, but It is that sense of grasping through faith the very presence of God, and believing what he wrote in his letter to the Romans chapter 8.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28

It is believed that Paul suffered from some kind of ailment. Some scholars say it was his vision. Others say it was some kind of anxiety. Either way, we look at Paul’s life and we can gather that He wrote most of the New Testament while in imprisonment at various times.

How could his outlook be so positive?
Hiw could he encourage the faith of others and even our oen faith while in hardships?

The secret to his success in hope is that he was able to understand that, circumstances do not define us. What is happening around us is not inside us.

We can trust the Lord to carry us through even in the midst of the storms of life.

We can cling to the one who is the Gover of life. We can be secure in Christ Jesus.

It is Jesus who said,

Paul writes in Hebrews 13, a reminder of what the Book of Proverbs 3:11-12.

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?”
Hebrews 12:5‭-‬7

At other times the Lord is using our trials to grow our faith. Like a muscle that needs exercise and stretching and effort to increase in strength. So, our faith in trials cause us to press in deeper with the Lord. This increases our capacity to trust the Lord in the midst of the tribulations we may face.

My dad was an icon when it came to making the word of God easily digestible. I say this becUse he preached the word in prison and made the gospel so very simple for the prisoners to understand. He spoke of Paul and of how Paul and Silas sang even within a prison cell and chained up. Dad preached about God’s faithfulness amd how his presence was in every place. He spoke fo how nothing could be hidden from God. Not the good we do nor the evil we do. Daddy spoke of how God’s love looked beyond all of it and saw our necessity for a rescuer. He saw humanity and the need for Salvation.

His hope in God did not depend on the circumstances of life.
My dad suffered from clinical depression. Even though he was such an amazing godly man, there was a chemical in balance in his brain. This caused him to become disoriented and frail at times. Though he had done so many things to bring others to Christ, he himself was ill.
You would not know it. He did not show anger or hate. He was childlike when he had a regression. He would cling to mom and together their love and trust in the Lord would carry them through.
He would need at times to be re stabilized and taken to the hospital to allow time for medication to cause the brain to stabilize. When their is not enough of dopamine or serotonin in the system a person can become irrational and lose their objective. They can be disoriented and need medical attention.

I saw this man, my and my mom battle through these moments with a sense of hope in Christ.
Pain, fear, sorrow, a sense of loss and anxiety came. Life was not always easy, but I saw them slowly and surely place their hope in Christ. The wonderful knowledge God gave doctors and mental health workers to help people is amazing.
The Lord opened a way for dad to become stable.
Paul, suffered from some ailment that caused him distress. But he did not stop trusting in the Lord. He continued in faith.

In 2019, we found out dad had cancer in his kidney. There was a mass that was found that was 9 centimeters large. They performed surgery and removed that kidney. Months later it was found that there was a metastasis. This means the cancer cells spread to many parts of the systems of his body.

We prayed. We asked for help. Immunotherapy was attempted. Dad was not a candidate for chemotherapy. He was too weak and too old to undergo the taxing process.
His faith remained intact. Mom and Dad decided they woukd trust the Lord in spite of all things.
Tears, fear, a sense fo letting go were all part of our families’ process. All of us loved Dad.
But the Lord knew best. Dad had cometed his time here. He had served rhe Lord all his adult life. Through illness, through good times and bad ttimes.
We saw him persevere. The encouragement of God’s word and Mom’s constant daily encouragements were pivotal in his recovery every time he had a mental crisis.
God’s word was able to sustain them. A wonderful church family upheld them. But trials came. Pain came.

We Are Not Exempt.
We are not better than our Master. Jesus suffered in this life. He experienced joys and sorrows.

In the book of John, He tells his disciples all that things that woukd happen.

“These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.” Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:25‭-‬28‭, ‬32‭-‬33

This is for us today. We too will go through things and hardships. We will face calamity and trials. But jsut as the Father was present with the Son. He is with us. Jesus overcame the power of sin and death.
We too will overcome. We too will have enough strength for each day.
His mercies are new every morning. (Lamentations 3:22-23).
I reiterate,
We can know that all things will work together for our good. (Rom.8:28).

Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8:31-39

Not Hardship or sorrow or pain or suffering or loss. God is with us.

He is that Potter that will complete his purpose in our lives.

He who bagn a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.
Philippians 1:6

Every moment is counted. Nothing is lost. The Lord Redeems all things. You can trust His love will hold you in the hollow of his hand.