Trying Times

I have learned both to abound and to suffer need…Philippians 4:12-13

This is the reason Paul wrote: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It was not, as some claim, some promise of God to do anything in the name of Jesus. It is God’s promise to help us through trying times. And we are suffering our share. Amen?

God’s grace is not a guarantee we will not suffer. We will; and we do. Like Paul, we are learning to lean on God. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound, Verse 12.  Abased means to be humbled, literally, to be brought low. A fitting word for what we are suffering: brought low; down but not out!

This is the power of God’s grace: to humble us. God is able to make us sufficient in all things, 2 Corinthians 9:8. Certainly, God could prevent us from ever suffering any hardship. But He doesn’t. Instead, God delivers us. He supplies all we need to succeed. Grace is more apparent in trying times. Love grows in adversity. 

This was what happened to Paul. He answered God’s call to go. Paul went only to be persecuted by those who did not want to hear the gospel. You answered God’s call to believe. Now God is working through all the sufferings of life to grow your faith—your love, not only for Him, but for your family. 

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work, 2 Corinthians 9:8. But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also, 1 Corinthians 8:7. 

God could have just touched us and given us great grace. But He didn’t. Instead, God takes us through life. A life full of trouble. In these troubles we discover the abundance of grace—the power of grace. Paul learned he could do all things through Christ during good times and bad times. Trying times being the better teacher.