When our problems don't disappear...
When times are tough, we pray...
But there are times that it seems that God didn't hear us, because our problems are still there.
David has another perspective on this: God doesn't always answer by taking our problems away - Sometimes, oftentimes, He answers by making us bold and stouthearted.
God is able to fill us with boldness: the ability to see and face the bullies around us.
We can be David saying to Goliath - "You come with spear and sword and javelin, I come in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, Whom (by the way) you have defied."
We can be Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego saying: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."
And God makes us stouthearted. (Don't you just love the feeling conveyed by "stouthearted"?) His Spirit strengthens us from within and makes us resolute, determined, faithful, persevering and unshakeable. Paul reminds Timothy: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."
Sometimes the best way is not around or out of our problems but through them...
| When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted. (Psalms138:3 ) |
