When You Can’t – God Can!

The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
(Hebrews 13:6 NKJV)

 

Ever heard the saying: God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable?

I wonder what category you are in today – the afflicted or the comfortable?

Whatever your answer, I’d like to share the following devotional from UCB Word For Today* (7 May 2017). This free quarterly devotional is written by Bob & Debbie Gass and I highly recommend it.

Dear reader, if you are currently suffering a season of affliction, I hope these words will be a source of comfort, hope and strength to you. But if you are occupying the place of the comfortable, then perhaps you know someone who is suffering affliction with whom you can share this post. And because life always has its ups and downs, perhaps this post can help you prepare yourself ahead of those inevitable down times.

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GOD CAN make you comfortable in some of life’s most uncomfortable places. He can bring you through situations you think you won’t survive, or feel like you’ll be stuck in forever. He can give you peace when you’re under pressure.

Before your life is over, you’ll experience loss. Indeed, losing some things will actually help you to appreciate the things you have. It’s the taste of failure that makes success so sweet.

You’ll live not knowing what tomorrow holds, but knowing that God has all your tomorrows planned out. Your future isn’t in the hands of your boss, your banker, your spouse, or anybody else. Nor is it in your own hands to control. All your tomorrows are in God’s hands.

And just because you don’t understand the path you’re on, doesn’t mean He isn’t leading you. He promises: ‘I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, and not forsake them’ (Isaiah 42:16 NKJV).

So get to know God, because you’ll need Him. And He will be there when everybody else has failed you. He will be there for you in the dark places. The psalmist writes, ‘weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning’ (Psalm 30:5 NKJV).

However long the night, morning will come – and with it His joy. Looking back, you’ll realise that his grace has protected you, provided for you, calmed you, comforted you, and brought you through. Times and seasons change, but not the Lord. He’s ‘the same yesterday, today, and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV).

 

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*Free postal copies of UCB Word For Today (UK and Republic of Ireland only) are available from: FREEPOST RLTX-ABUL-GRAR, United Christian Broadcasters, Westport Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 4JF

For the online version visit:

 

CREDIT: The above CC0 image comes courtesy of Kien Trinh at Pixabay.com