trials

Your Heart is Revealed Under Pressure.

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The Wilderness

I remember an Elvis Presley song and a line that sings…

“Sweetened through the ages just like wine…”

I’m pondering how going through trials and hardship makes one sweeter.

I was listening to a woman the other day share about a preacher she heard and something was missing. I asked if he was a green man? Basically, a preacher who knows only theology but has never experienced what he supposedly believes. She got it. Yes. Years of heartache and experience was missing from his teaching.

Today, I read this after listening to Murray Dueck speak on seasons in life…

Jeremiah 48:11  (ERV)

“Moab has never known trouble.
Moab is like wine left to settle.
Moab has never been poured from one jar to another.
He has not been taken into captivity.
So he tastes as he did before,
and his smell has not changed.”

 

One’s teaching and authority becomes sweeter when they have been sifted/ gone through trouble…

Character is who you are in the dark.
Your heart is revealed under pressure.
Gold refined in the fire – 7 x will burn out any dirt.
What kind of oppression does it take to get you depressed?
Do you believe the same thing about God when you go through trials?

The reward from a season of favour is a season of pruning to regift you, change your belief systems.

When God calls you into the dessert, He wants to spend more time with you! (I get this.)

God will ask…

Am I enough for you… if you never minister again?
Is your love for ministry greater than your love for me?

Often the very place we were wounded, is the place we are sent back to stand.

But, we first must learn to rest in the Lord.

He desires relationship with us and longs to teach us our value is not in doing, but in being with him.

Praising God in The Midst of Trials

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“Every time we experience a trial, the world watches to see the substance of our faith – watches to see if we maintain our love and devotion; watches to see if God will see us through this difficult time. There may often be no better way to minister to others than to simply praise God in the middle of our own trials – no better way to show that God is real than by making Him real in our own life.” – Steve Troxel

Afflictions We Can’t Understand

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“Even to ourselves come afflictions that we cannot understand, and Satan seems so busy in the matter that it is hard to trace the hand of the Lord in it at all. But His hand is in it nevertheless, and He overrules everything. No trial comes except by His permission and for some wise and loving purpose which perhaps only eternity will disclose.”

– Hannah Whitall Smith

A Sweet Aroma in The Midst of Trials

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I loved a devotional as I enjoyed my morning coffee on the deck…

It told me that in the midst of trials, our prayers are a still a sweet aroma to Christ. When I was in my deepest pit and called out to Him, it was sweet to Him! It wasn’t received reluctantly.

My friend, it tells me not only does He love your personal honesty in the depths you find yourself in, but when you pray for others while you yourself are in the doldrums, that too is sweet to Him. So on days you can’t lift a prayer for yourself, may you simply start by lifting a prayer for others in the confidence that He is leaning forward and listening intently. Then perhaps you may find the topic slowly changing from crying out for your loved ones to a personal call for help. And you can be sure He is hearing you lovingly and intently. And to top it all off, I picture His angels ready to act upon His command.

A Sweet Aroma in The Midst of Trials

/ merri ellen g :) / Leave a comment

I loved this devo as I enjoyed my morning coffee on the deck…

It tells me that in the midst of trials, our prayers are a still a sweet aroma to Christ. It tells me that when I was in my deepest pit and called out to Him, it was sweet to Him! It wasn’t received reluctantly.

It tells me not only does He love your personal honesty in the depths you find yourself in, but when you pray for others while you yourself are in the doldrums, that too is sweet to Him. So on days you can’t lift a prayer for yourself, may you simply start by lifting a prayer for others in the confidence that He is leaning forward and listening intently. Then perhaps you may find the topic slowly changing from crying out for your loved ones to a personal call for help. And you can be sure He is hearing you lovingly and intently. And to top it all off, I picture His angels ready to act upon His command. Read the devo here…

http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2012/04/09/ff_fragrance-of-christ-to-god/

Prepared for the Future

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Sometimes there are trying circumstances in our lives that don’t make sense to us. We wonder why God is allowing us to go through them. But God is preparing us for what is ahead. Everything we go through in life is preparation for what will follow. God will always give us what we need, when we need it. Not before—and never after—but just when we need it.

Read… Today: “Prepared for the Future” ::: Daily Devotions ::: Harvest Ministries.

When life is rough and you need some advice…

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I just was reminded of this passage in James 1:

“5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do…

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. 13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

16 So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. 18 He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.”

What frustrations, problems or hardships are you suffering through? Keep asking God for wisdom, direction, patient endurance and keep asking Him “what do you want me to learn here Lord?” You are his prized possession and so He is preparing you for something special. God’s big plan for you is not to merely make you happy; it is also to make you holy. He wants you to become like Jesus – and for you and I that includes freedom from a life of bondage. It also means having a peace that flows despite suffering pain and hardship. It’s a supernatural peace only given by God. (Much like the Apostle Paul had despite all he went through). God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.

Talk to God every day, read His Word which contains all His promises, apply it, and fully trust in Him. Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father. He never changes despite all the changes around us.

Here’s a great article I found that goes further… (this is a pdf file – simply right click and save to your desktop)

http://www.intouch.org/atf/cf/%7B7048F59B-0DA1-4C33-B958-6A013BEDB8A7%7D/LP080427.pdf

If you need a pdf reader for your computer, it’s a free software from Adobe which you can get here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/