Praise God For Hard Times – Sunday Thought For The Day

Friday evening a gentleman visiting our church was seated directly in front of me.  I noted that there was something written on the back of the tee-shirt he was wearing, but it wasn’t until we stood that I could read the inscription.  It said: “Praise God in the storm.”

The very instant I read those words I thought of: Philippians 4:6-7 (KJV) ⁶Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  ⁷ And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

I thought back to, what had been, up to that time decades before, the loneliest, most difficult time of my life.  My very being, my world; everything had been shattered.  Hopelessness was my constant companion.  Dread was my shadow.

Little could I have realized at that time, God was in the process of fulfilling something far greater than I could imagine in those dark hours of bleakness during which, I could only see my destruction.  What I was unable to see, was the bright sunshine of tomorrow.  I couldn’t see that just a few months later I’d reach the end of myself, and on a quiet day in August as I sat reading a book about Jesus, I would fall to my knees a broken vessel, and stand up as a born again child of God.

It took God bringing me to the end of myself, before he could use me.  You see, as long as I was dependent upon myself, He couldn’t use me.

I’m also reminded of a dear sister in Christ, who’s husband steadfastly refused to have anything to do with the idea of Christ and salvation.  Many days and hours of petitioning the Lord over the final year of his life, and two weeks before our friend’s husband passed away, he accepted the Lord in a miraculous way.  The last two weeks of his life as a born-again child of God were nothing short of life changing for all who came in contact with him.

The point I am making is, that there’s no storm to great for God, and many times, the storms are God’s way of shaping us.  They may be His way to get us to stop, surrender, and remember that He is God.

Looking back over the years, I can point to numerous moments that my prayers in a season of storm(s) have been praise and thanks even as the winds of testing were raging around me.  During those specific times of praise and thanksgiving, I have emerged a more refined child of God, with a clearer understanding of His leading.

I do not believe the visitor to our church had an inkling of an idea regarding why he sat where he did.  But, nothing dissuades me that God used his tee-shirt to share a message of reminding me from whence the Lord has brought me, and a promise that He’s not done with me yet.

It is important to remember hard times are not to have us despair and worry.  Hard times are intended to draw us closer to our Father in heaven.  Our friend I mentioned above can attest to my words.  Her refusal to believe her husband would pass unsaved has now given her a special ministry to people she has been uniquely prepared to reach.   She speaks with power and authority of having seen God work in the wee hours of hardship.

In closing I’m reminded, that our hard times are also to be used to encourage others.

READ:

James 1:2-4 (KJV)