Day One
Run to Daddy
Some forms of worship only release their sweetest fragrance to God when offered from the fires of trial and adversity. — Finding Favor With the King, 25
Scripture Reading
Acts 16:25-34, Where Paul and Silas, Beaten and Locked up in the Philippian Jail, Offered Prayer and Praise to God, Who Delivered Them With an Earthquake, After Which The Jailer and His Entire Household Became Believers.
A mentality is afoot in some sectors of the church today that teaches believers to expect an easy road in life. “Just have faith and everything will be fine!” If you’re sick, struggling with your finances, or having problems on the job or in relationships, it’s because you don’t have enough faith. Christians are overcomers. Life should be a breeze!
There’s one thing wrong with this attitude: it flies in the face of reality. Christians go bankrupt. Christians get cancer. Christians lose their jobs. Trials and adversity are real, even for believers. They touch every one of us, and they hurt. And they usually have nothing to do with our faith level.
How do you handle adversity in your life? Do you gripe and complain about your lot? “Oh, woe is me!” Do you challenge or question God? “Why are you letting this happen to me?” Or do you view trials as an opportunity to grow and draw closer to your heavenly Father?
Children who get a cut or a scrape run to Mommy or Daddy for comfort and the kiss that will make it all better. Love is given and received, and bonds deepen between parent and child during such times.
In the same way, trials and hard times should propel us into our Father’s arms, not cause us to run the other way. Faith is one thing, expecting faith to shelter us from all difficulty and hardship is another. It just won’t happen. Jesus, in fact, told us the opposite: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you…. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:18, 20a.) However, He also tempered this grim news with a great promise: “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33b.)
Trials and adversity are part of life in a fallen world, particularly for Christians because we are on assignment in enemy territory. They are the purifying flames that our loving Father will use to cleanse us, burn away all our impurities, and shape and strengthen us for service in His name—if we will let Him. The trials of life can either make us or break us, depending on our response.
When Paul and Silas languished in that prison in Philippi, their feet tight in the stocks and their backs bruised and bleeding from their beatings, they could have moaned and groaned about the unfairness of life. Instead, at midnight they were “praying and singing hymns to God.” (Acts 16:25a.) They turned their pain into praise and their sores into songs of joy. In the midst of tribulation their jubilant worship went up as a sweet fragrance of faith and love, and the Father’s deliverance came down and literally shook the earth. The fragrance of their worship permeated those around them, including the jailer and his family, and changed their lives forever.
Athletes understand the truth of “no pain, no gain.” They know that in order to grow stronger their muscles must be stressed and stretched to the painful breaking point in exercise so new tissue will generate. We cannot grow without pain and resistance. It’s a fact of life. God uses our trials and hardships to draw us to Him, to bring us to maturity, and to prepare us for greater things. Our willing worship in times of tribulation is a sweet fragrance to God that brings Him near.
It’s easy to praise God when things are going well. When was the last time you worshiped Him during hard times? Try viewing your trials and adversity as opportunities for praise, worship, and growth. When life hurts, don’t run away—run to Daddy!
Prayer
Father, sometimes life hurts, and my first impulse is to turn my back or run away. I know You love me and I know that You want to use even the bad times and the sad times to draw me to Your side and make me more like You. I’m sorry for worshiping You only when things are going well. Teach me to worship You at all times, and let my worship be a sweet fragrance rising to Your throne.
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Excerpted from:
Daily Inspiration for Finding Favor With the King by Tommy Tenney
Copyright © 2006; ISBN 0764203088
Published by Bethany House Publishers
Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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