[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Tuesday, October 16 2012

[Paul]

Well folks, here in North America the third Tuesday in October is almost past, ready to be added to the history books.  How was your day today? Mine was good, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.  I hope and pray that, for the rest of you in other parts of the world, that your Wednesday is going well.

"When Life Closes In" by John Strong is our sermonette article for today, rendered as follows:

Have you noticed that life does not always run smoothly? What a silly question! Life here in this world hits a lot of snags, and sometimes it just seems to close in around us.

The Apostle Paul described his own experience when life was pushing in on him: "We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life" (2 Cor. 1:8).

Paul asked a question we all should ask: "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor. 2:16).  How can we be "sufficient" to handle the trying times that come our way? Sometimes we handle one or two major crises just to have another come crashing into us.  Sometimes it seems as if it will be just too much.

Perhaps another question we might ask is, Why is God allowing life to close in on me or my loved ones, even to the point of despairing of life?

The apostle answered that he and his companions "Had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (2 Cor 1:9).

When life closes in on us and we despair of it, we should put our trust in God instead of trying to figure everything out on our own.  Unfortunately, the normal, human tendency is to run _from God and continue to stumble around trying to figure out solutions without consulting our loving Heavenly Father, who has our best interests at heart.

What does it mean to trust God when life closes in on us? It implies that we believe God knows what He is doing, despite the fact that He does not seem to be doing much about our difficulties.  Trusting God in the darkness when our lives are not making sense is where the rubber meets the road.  It is easier to trust Him when life is running along smoothly.

But when things are going badly, we sometimes find ourselves considering options other than trusting God.  It is during such times of darkness, uncertainty, and wondering what is happening and why that we can learn the blessing of trusting God in deeper ways than we knew previously.

We like it when life goes smoothly, but we learn to trust God through hard times.  At those points in our life where we do not understand, remember that He is sufficient for whatever circumstances come our way.  Trust Him!

And there you have it for today.  Our thanks to John Strong, Christian Life Magazine and Lutheran Blind Mission for allowing this article to be posted.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout the night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul