By Lois Evans
My sister in Christ, I want to share a special word of hope and encouragement with you today. God can enable you to smile in spite of your tears. To carry on when you feel like giving up. To pray when you’re at a loss for words. To love even though your heart has been broken time and time again.
God can enable you to sit calmly when you feel like throwing up your hands in frustration. To be understanding when nothing seems to make sense. To listen when you’d really rather not hear it again. To share your feelings with others when sharing is necessary to help ease the load. Anything is possible when God is at the center of your life.
God brings trials into our lives as women to show us whether we really believe what we say we believe. It is so important that we learn the lesson of obedience in the trails God sends. We are like students in school; we must pass a test on the information given before going on to the next level.
The Christian life is a growth process. Salvation is free, but sanctification-steady growth in Christ-is expensive. It requires human effort and responsibility.
When a trial comes and you are in your night of weeping, it is natural to ask God why? It might be that God wants you to have a share in the “fellowship” of Christ’s sufferings (see Phil. 3:10).
While we do not ordinarily think of trials and fellowship in the same breath, for the Christian sufferings is linked to the joy awaiting us in Christ’s presence. So when we ask God the why of suffering, His answer is that He is testing and perfecting our faith, and through suffering preparing us for indescribable joy.
Lois Evans
This is powerful, thank you!