2 My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that
the testing of your
faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may
be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
6 In
this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have
been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO TRUST GOD
He
has never tempted us to do wrong
James
1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted,
"I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He
Himself tempt anyone.
He
is perfectly consistent in doing good for us
James
1:17 Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there
is no variation or shadow of turning.
All
good things come from God
Acts
Matthew
5:44-45
44
"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good
to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute
you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His
sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust.
Even
when we were in the wrong
Romans
5:8 But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I
John 4:10 In this is love, not that we
loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins.
And
He tells us now …
31
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against
us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a
charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns?
It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
"For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
37
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height
nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Conclusion:
We
have never known anything other than God's kindness and goodness.
We
have every reason to trust Him and no reason not to.
Do
we trust Him enough to do what He says?
We
all agree that the present is dark, and there are some who think that the skies
never were so dark as now. It may
comfort us to get a few messages from the "good old times.
"For
my part, I take Europe to be worn out.
When Voltaire dies we may say: Goodnight to the world."
Sir
Horace Walpole 1774
"I
dare not marry, the future is so dark and unsettled."
Wilberforce
1790
"There
is scarcely anything around us but ruin and despair."
William
Pitt 1780
"There
appears to me to be more folly, envy, malice, and rascality than there was the
day before; and I do now begin to think that plain, downright honesty and
integrity will be kicked out of doors."
Archibald
Stuart, 1792
"In
industry, commerce and agriculture there is no hope."
Benjamin
Disraeli, 1850
"I
thank God that I am spared the ruin that is gathering around us."
The
dying words of the Duke of Wellington, 1851
After
reading all these, I feel better, don't you?
J.M. Gillpatrick
Tough
times don't last, tough people do.