Trouble

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  — John 16:33                                   

I was glad to see the final days of the year draw to a close. It had held so much sorrow, sickness, and sadness. I was ready to welcome January with its very own brass band!

But as the first month of the new year arrived, so did one bit of sad news after another. Several friends lost their parents. My dad’s brother slipped away in his sleep. Friends discovered they had cancer. A colleague’s brother and a friend’s son both died tragically and abruptly. Rather than the sad times ceasing, the new year seemed to bring a whole new tsunami of sorrow.

John 16:33 tells us, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Even God’s children are not promised a life of ease, of prosperity, nor of good health. Yet we are never alone in our trouble. Isaiah 43:2 reminds us that when we pass through deep waters, God is with us. Although we don’t always understand God’s purposes in the trials we experience, we can trust His heart because we know Him.

Our God is a God of abundant love and “neither death nor life. . . nor things present nor things to come [will ever] separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). When trouble comes, His presence is His promise.    — Cindy Hess Kasper

Swift cometh His answer,

so clear and so sweet;

“Yea, I will be with thee,

thy troubles to meet;

I will not forget thee,

nor fail thee, nor grieve;

I will not forsake thee,

I never will leave.” — Flint

READ: John 16:25-33

Faith is believing that God

is present when all we hear is silence.