Thursday, January 29, 2015

He goes with us

A quote from Bo Stern, guest on Focus on the Family radio broadcast 1/27/15...

"When trial hits, we think, 'Why did God do this?' And I lived my life for a long time thinking if I show up and pay my tithe and pay my dues and marry the right guy and live my life the right way, things will go well for me; that will be the favor of God.  But I'm just discovering that God is not the God to keep us from all affliction, He is the God who goes with us in all affliction.  And understanding that about His character—not that I won't suffer, but that I won't suffer alone—has been a game changer for me. ... We misquote things all the time. We say that it's the favor of God that I have the good house and the good spouse and the good whatever. And all of that stuff is great, but we can achieve that even without God. So the stuff that really is God's favor comes in our deepest moment, our darkest time, when we see an angle of His character that we've never seen before..."

From "Finding Strength for the Terminal Battle."

1 comment:

Karen Hossink said...

As I was praying this morning, thanking God for my home and that we have heat and food, etc. I continued by saying, "Thank You for Your goodness to me." And then I realized that sounded like God's goodness is all about the good things He gives me.
And I know it isn't!
He knows exactly what we need. And sometimes what we need is to go through a trial so we can experience His presence and be reminded of what happens when we trust Him.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts!