“And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver, and you will honor me” Psalm 50:15
“Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” Job 5:7
I recently officiated at the funeral service of a fifteen-year-old boy that I had never met. I was asked to fill in for a pastor friend of mine who would be out of town during this very difficult time for the family and friends. Because of the terrible sadness of such an occasion, I would like to say that I will never do that again, but I know better. It seems that the pain of losing a young person is more difficult than any other age.
During the eulogy, one of the teenagers asked, “Why did God allow this to happen?” That has to be one of the most asked questions of all time. It is a valid question but few ever get an answer. It is asked over and over again every time there is tragedy, loss of life or a natural disaster.
For anyone who has had to come to grips with adversity, learning to trust God, especially in difficult times, is a slow and tedious process. I would like to think that all Christians have at some point, been taught how to deal with adversity and know how to trust God in strenuous times—but that is not reality. Unless we have experienced troublesome times, we have no experience in dealing with it. Being able to daily trust God is the result of many years of Biblical instruction combined with life experience, a strong devotional life and the determination to “finish the course.”
Can you trust God? Absolutely! We will all experience some type of adversity; unfulfilled dreams, injustice, the loss of a job, loneliness, the list goes on and on. Trust is something that develops and is strengthened as we walk with God during trying times and he teaches us how to deal with it. As the verse above states, He will deliver us in times of trouble as we learn what He is trying to teach us and submit to His will and way.
When the train goes through a tunnel and the world gets dark, do you jump out? Of course not!. You sit still and trust the engineer to get you through
