Since our lives are full of trials, we want to remember there are always more to come.

Job admits, “For man is born for trouble, as sparks fly upward” ( Job 5:7 ). Trials are inescapable, so do not be shocked.

Be advised that our enemy, Devil , is on the loose. Since our world is fallen, we want to understand that those that love us may give us wrong recommendation. In the many years of my life, I have received wrong recommendation on many occasions from folks who really love me. They did not mean to be wrong, but they were. Since our God is sovereign, we must prepare ourselves for both blessing and adversity. Because our God is sovereign, we must prepare ourselves for blessing and grief. He hasn’t got to step into a hospice room and say, “Now let me offer 5 reasons this has occurred to your son.” Understand, God is full of compassion, but His long term, divine plan is beyond our short term, human understanding.

“It is simpler to lower your perspective of The Lord God than to raise your faith to such a height,” writes a keen writer. He then adds, “We shall watch the fight as Job’s religion is strained every way by enticements to see the reason behind his setback in something less than God.” God is fully, fully, and fully in control. Please accept and submit to that teaching. How wonderful it is to find those that trust Him to the end of this vale of suffering exclaiming, “And may His name be praised. However , may His name be praised.” that’s worship at its highest level.

May God allow you to raise your religion to such heights instead of lower your perspective of Him.

Because we’ve lived with our other halves over time and became exceedingly comfy around them, we be unguarded in our words. Better halves generally get the brunt of our worst words. As we read earlier, Job failed to call her “wicked,” but “foolish.”. Job could have been a public figure, but he did not throw his weight around. It makes little difference how widely recognized or how crucial you are how long you have been married, how much cash you make, or how large your company is—or your church is ; no person has got the right to chat down to his better half. Similarly , she knows lots of stuff on you.

A better half flourishes in a context of love and acknowledgment. God has made her into the woman she has become.

And may I remind you, she’s the better half you selected.

She has become the lady God is making her into, and that calls for complete approval and unconditional love on your side. Ideally, that mix leads to a deep commitment. Both of you are in this relationship for the long haul. And no kind of hardship, difficulty, test, or trial will separate you. Shockingly , many a marriage is bound together by extremely thin, frail threads.

As tests come—from the in-laws or the kids, maybe an issue when born that leads to defects in a kid, or trials and tests in the business or fiscal realm. Talk to her about her price in your life—how much she represents to you. When the melting pot warms up, too many fellows look for methods to get out. Get troublesome with yourself and stay, whatever what.

He calls some folks to do the gutsy work in the ditchs. He calls some folks to compose and conduct music. God has all sorts of creative methods to use us—ways we will not even imagine and definitely can’t see up there round the next bend in the road.

One of the toughest things to hear is that God is going to use some other person to do something that you thought was your role to fill. “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what’s my home, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was unimportant in Your eyes, O Lord GOD, for You have talked also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. Again what else can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord GOD.

It is important that once in a while we sit down, take a long look at our short lives, and count our blessings. Who are we to have once been shielded from the rains that slipped and the robust winds that annihilated regions, leaving hundreds homeless? Who are we that He has sanctified our home and kept it safe? Warm in winter. Who am I, Lord, that you must give me health and strength to be in a position to hold a job or pursue this career or get this degree? Or to have parents who have inspired me? Or to have these great youngsters and to see them grow? Who am I? “Dream or no dream, I am a sanctified person,” asserts David.

Here is more proof that David was a person after God’s own heart.

“David, you may know the pleasure of having a child by whom this church will be built. Not thru your work, but through your child the dream will be fulfilled.”. It isn’t God’s judgment that’s coming on David as a consequence of wrong.

It is just God’s redirecting David’s plan and pronouncing, “This is a great resolve, but I say ‘no’ to you and I say ‘yes’ to your boy.

Well, was David not right to begin with—wrong in thinking about building the temple? It’s an issue of accepting God’s “no” and living alongside the poser of His will. And we predict God to package His plan for us just like we would. We’d like the logic that we use to be His logic. And when it’s not, we wonder what is wrong as it’s not working out like we might have worked it out. When God asserts no it isn’t always discipline or refusal. You have pursued His will ; you have wished to do His will.

With all good inclinations you announced, “By God’s grace I’m going to follow this.” And here you are, 30 or 40 years on, or perhaps only 5 years after, and it has not materialized. Now if you hear some folks, you can be put on a guilt-trip.

“You see there,” they are saying, “you set your heart on God, but you have run from Him. Maybe the road they’re traveling is God’s will for them, and it took His exclaiming “no” to get them on that right road. The thing we have got to do in our walk with the Lord God is to listen punctiliously from daily.