"Trouble and prayer are closely related.. Trouble often drives men to God in prayer, while prayer is but the voice of men in trouble." ~ - E.M. Bounds
"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms." ~ Jam. 5:13
Ungrateful people sometimes opt to be that way when they don't get their own way, or fail to receive what they want (I've unfortunately been there before). But even if we believers don't receive an answer in the affirmative for everything that we ask for, we can still heartily thank God for all that He has not allowed to come to us. Don't know about you, but I deserve much worse than I've experienced.
Let's keep prayin' for the lost and the saved around us who don't have it as good as we do and thank God. He is so for blessing us all in Christ Jesus, more than we are for that. Are you sure you are in Him? Call out to the Lord in faith.
Remember, sometimes those things that seem so awful to us, might not end up being that way. I'm glad that my SoCal pastor named, Greg, shared something with me along this same line of thinking...
I once heard a story about a man who was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Seeing that rescue might not happen for a long time, he painstakingly built a little hut to provide himself protection from the elements and a place to store the few items he had managed to salvage from the wreck. Every day he would prayerfully scan the horizon, hoping for the approach of a ship. But he saw nothing.
Then one evening, after he had been out and about on the island, searching for food, he came back to see that his little hut was in flames. He tried to put out the fire, but it was too late. Everything he owned in this world had gone up in smoke. He went to sleep that night listening to the pounding of the surf, stunned by his own misfortune.
Best-case scenario.. The next morning he awoke to find a ship anchored off the island—the first ship he had seen since he had been marooned. Still trying to believe his eyes, he heard footsteps, and then a human voice, saying, "We saw your smoke signal and we came to rescue you."
That's how it happens sometimes. In divine sovereignty and grace, the worst-case scenario somehow becomes the best-case scenario.
Disasters can turn out to be great opportunities for God to work in your life. The Lord is always present with us, always intimately acquainted with our circumstances, and He specializes in taking "impossible" situations and turning them around, for His glory and our benefit.
Will it be so bad if God is in control? How do you know?
