April 12, 2021: Being Prepared for The Trouble That Will Come in Our Lives Begins with Trusting God.

As we our lives daily basis and try to be ready for the unforeseen bad circumstances that may come our way, our plans do not consider the accidents or surprises that do come. Although planning helps us avoid the financial, health and minor surprises that come, even the best thought our strategies cannot eliminate all the problems from our lives. We live in a fallen world...a world full of selfish people seeking their own wants and desires.

Only through God's help can we find the balance between our good planning and the unforeseen bad circumstances that may come. Read the following verses in Proverbs about the ant:

Proverbs: 6: 6-8 (NIV)

Go to the ant, you sluggard;

consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,

no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer

and gathers its food at harvest.

Even with our planning, we cannot foresee what the future holds. But our great God who knows all things, can prepare us for those bad circumstances when they do come. Through our trusting God in our lives, we can find the balance between carefully considering the future and responding to difficulties.

God often has a purpose for the trouble He allows into our lives. He may use it to develop patience in us, to increase our faith, or simply to bring us closer to Him. The Bible reminds us of this in the following Proverb:

Proverbs 19: 20-23

Listen to advice and accept discipline,

and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart,

but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

22 What a person desires is unfailing love[a];

better to be poor than a liar.

23 The fear of the Lord leads to life;

then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

As we submit our goals and hopes for the future to our God, He will show us what He wants to accomplish in us and through us. But this can only begin by first accepting His Son, Jesus, into our hearts, and then fully and absolutely surrendering all our plans to Him. As it states in verse 23 in Proverb 19: The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble".

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

If we genuinely want to find the true peace and contentment in our lives we seek, we must come to the acknowledgement that it is only through the giving up our selfish wills, that we will find it. Why not begin today, surrender all yourself to God and begin living a life of "untouchable trouble".