Hold fast

Trials and tribulations come our way. There’s nothing we can do about it but ride out the storm when it hits. We must simply get through it the best we can. I recently had a discussion with my daughter where I told her that it isn’t in the easy times that we grow and learn but in the midst of the hard times that we gain our greatest growth.

It’s in those hard times that so many cry out to the Lord, both the saved and the unsaved…the regenerate and the reprobate. Many people who won’t acknowledge Christ at any other time do so in the midst of trouble or despair. That seems to be something ingrained deep in our human hearts and minds. For many this reaching out to Christ in times of need is as natural as breathing even if they don’t acknowledge His existence at any other time.

For the regenerate though…what do we have to gain during the times of our greatest trials? It’s easy to hold onto our faith…whether real or only surface deep…when things are good, when life is easy. It’s during those times of great stress and personal pain that the truth is so often seen.

I know of at least one person that was saved, regenerated, during a time of deep personal pain. In crying out to the Lord in that pain this person was saved. It was instant. And this person felt the difference. How many people are saved by the Lord during their deepest moments of anguish?

But for those that have already been saved what do we have to learn and gain from that deep place of pain? The Lord has a purpose for all our trials and tribulations. There’s a purpose for everything we experience. What might He be trying to teach us in those moments of despair when we’d do anything to escape the troubles we’re going through?

He’s already saved us, already brought us to Him. That can’t be the purpose of the pain. There has to be something else there. Why would He put us in a situation to go through such hurt when our salvation can’t be the reason?

Is it to teach us a lesson? To punish us for something? To bring us to a deeper understanding of Him? To change something in us? To get us to do something that is in His plan?

We can’t know the answers to those questions until after the pain has passed, until after we have weathered the storm and come out on the other side. Even then we may never know the reason but we can know that there is a reason. We can know that He has a purpose and a plan. We can know that we are to hold fast to our Lord and our faith and ride out the storm.

And we can trust that He is taking us somewhere even if we would rather not go there at the time.