Daily Devotional for Saturday, April 20

Paul’s Request for the Saints

“And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints,” 1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13.

“In trial and weakness and trouble, He seeks to bring us low, until we learn that His grace is all, and to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. His presence filling and satisfying our emptiness, becomes the secret of humility that need never fail” (Humility: The Beauty of Holiness, Andrew Murray).

Have you ever prayed for God to remove a trial from your life or ease a heavy burden you were carrying? I have. During what seemed to be the worst pain I had ever felt, I begged God to swoop in and rescue me by solving the problem I was facing. However, God did not give me the solution for which I begged. Yet, throughout the trial, the work He did in me was tremendous, and the grace I enjoyed was not like anything I had ever experienced.

I think it is perfectly human and perfectly okay for us to ask God to remove our trials and solve our problems. Yet, most times, God is intending to shape us into His image and grow our faith in ways that He cannot do without the trials. It seems to be that God does His most defining work in us when we are at our weakest.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Do not despise the trials you experience. For it is in the most difficult times of life that we experience the greatness of God.

Steven Ridings