[Jesus said] "I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." - John 16:33 (TNIV)


So often trouble is only a part of a painful growing process like a seed buried alive by a seemingly merciless fate under suffocating ground in a windowless grave, until in supreme agony it ruptures into a new life! This death, burial, pain, is not trouble! It is the travail of new birth. "...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain" (John 12:24).

When trouble breaks your heart and makes your knees buckle, and forces penitent tears from eyes sealed in prayer to Almighty God, then trouble may turn out to be the redeeming agony before new birth.

What kind of people do you think we would be if we never had any trouble? It is only when we lift heavy loads that we build hard muscles in body, mind and soul.

Tough times leave calluses that someday may save our hands from bleeding.

* * *
Mighty God, You told me to expect trouble in this life. Forgive me for complaining when it comes my way. Help me look to You for strength, perseverance, and faith when faced with trouble and to remember that Your desire is to produce good things in my life through it.
--R.S