“Why Hard Times Come” was the topic for my daily Scripture Writing Schedule this week, and it has been different from any that I’ve done before. We have all been going through something that we as a country have never experienced before. “Stay at Home” orders were posted. Businesses, deemed “non-essential” were closed. Streets were empty, and ideas, such as social distancing, sanitizing everything you touch, attending ZOOM meetings, and wearing masks, are now the norm. Millions are on unemployment and kids have a six month “summer vacation.” Life is hard right now – for everyone. But, why do hard times come?
The memory verse this week was Psalm 119:71 – “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.” Have you turned to God’s Word for answers? For in Hosea 4:6, God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou has rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no priest to me, seeing thou hast forgotten the law of Thy God, I will also forget they children.” He has given us His Word – the Bible. Have you studied it?
Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” that bothered him, but he finally came to the realization that, “lest I should be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” (II Corinthians 12:7) Paul’s difficulty kept him humble. Have you “humbled yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time?” (I Peter 5:6) Were you getting too proud of what “you’ve” accomplished, and forgotten that “all things belong to You (God)”? (I Corinthians 3:21) Have you been giving God the glory?
James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.” We are being tried. But why? Paul told the church in Rome, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulation knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And patience, experience, and experience, hope (Romans 5:3-4). Paul realized that the hard times made him patient, and that experience gave him HOPE. How can what we are experiencing give us hope? We must realize that we should, “despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of His correction. For whom the Lord loveth, He correcteth; even as a father the son, in whom delighteth” (Proverbs 3:11-12). Perhaps, the Lord is trying to teach us a lesson because He loves us so much.
Friends, we must keep on keeping on. “Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9) We know not when “due season” will come, but it is a promise of God that it will come, and when it does – all this will be worth it! Hard times have fallen on our world. What have you learned from this experience? Me, I’ve learned that above all, we are simply blessed, Courtney
so true–thanks