And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20
We have His promises to rely upon. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He sticks closer than a brother. When the world walks away from us, God is still there in the midst of the trial. Not only is He there but we must remember; He allowed the trial. This is a hard concept for believers to internalize but God allowed your trials and mine. That does not mean He caused them but He did not intervene to stop them. Whatever you are going through, God is developing your character:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. Ecclesiastes 7:14
If everything was always dancing on mountaintops, we would find ourselves less and less dependent on God and more likely to believe that we had something to do with the mountaintop. But God will never give us more than we can handle and will always provide a way out:
The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 1Corinthians 10: 13
But make no mistake about it; God allowed it. And here is the reality we must face He will get His way. We can be as defiant as we want but in the end, God wins. Take a minute in your trial and consider your chances of avoiding God's will in your situation. We can rail against God, making our demands about our situation but in the end, God wins. The sooner you realize that and get back on the winning side, the sooner He can do His refining work in your life.
For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66: 10 (NKJV)
God is testing us and there is always a lesson in the storm. There is faith to be built and strengthened. There is a testimony to be constructed. God has called us all to a great work and He is preparing us for that work. It is at our greatest moment of weakness that His strength is manifest in our lives:
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians: 9-10
