Eight Things to Remember During Tough Times (part 5)

God will make a way for you when the test is on!

8.23.2023

Review

Our character is formed in the tests and hard places we endure.

If you want to be used by God, be willing to endure some trouble!

1 Peter 5:10 (MEV)

But after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory through Christ Jesus, will restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.

Tough Times are training times! (June 14)

1. We are not immune from hardship. (June 28)

There are two kinds of suffering that Jesus endured:

Circumstantial and Substitutional.

2. Our journey through life is often filled with hard places.

Hardship, tests, and difficulties are part of living on earth.

God never promised that life would be easy!

John 16:33 (NLT)

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

3. Sometimes, God allows us to go through a hard place! (July 12)

He may send you into a hard place in life for training…

Deuteronomy 32:11 (NKJV)

As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up,

carrying them on its wings, so the LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with Him.

4. Our response determines what the tough times produce in us!

What life finds in us determines what life does to us.

Cup half full or half empty?

You can have the mindset that people are out to get me, or that God is good and all things work together for good.

Are you a victim or victor?

James 1:2 (Phillips)

When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character, men of integrity with no weak spots.

5. God will make a way for you when the test is on!

Two things will help you when the test is on: True friends, and God and His promises.

Stay positive when the negatives hit hard!

Your enemy wants to get you to focus on your circumstances.

True Friends:

Don’t isolate!

Proverbs 27:17 (NKJV)

As iron sharpens iron,

So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

Proverbs 17:17 (NKJV)

A friend loves at all times,

And a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)

A man who has friends must himself be friendly,

But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Acts 4:13-24 (NKJV)

The Name of Jesus Forbidden

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. 15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, 16 saying, “What shall we do to these men? For, indeed, that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17 But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.”

18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” 21 So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done. 22 For the man was over forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,

Who are your companions? They will encourage you!

Get involved in a small group!

Years ago, 1988, when I started a church alone in a small town, I found a group of pastors who met in a pastor’s home monthly. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. They encouraged me.

I had friends that would just call me for no reason, not knowing that I was having a deep struggle.

I had ministry friends that I called and went to see in 2016 and 2017 when I made changes here.

They kept me on the straight and level path!

God and His Word:

Focus on God, His love, His promises, His care…

Years ago God dealt with me about taking daily time to wait in His Presence and talk to Him about my struggles.

I had a huge pressure time when I was 30 or so when I pioneered a church in a small SC town.

I wanted to give up. That would have been the easy way out, and God would not let me take the easy way.

He spoke very sternly to me one day as I was thinking about all my problems and seeing no way out.

He told me to GET UP! I took my Bible and went to my backyard and as I walked under the ten or so oak trees there

God gave me the following scriptures that really gave me hope and kept me from quitting. They gave me hope!

We all need hope that things will improve when life is hard!

Hope is the anchor of the soul!

Hebrews 6:18-19 (NKJV)

That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,

If all you see is the problems, you’re looking at the wrong things!

Psalm 27:5 (God’s Word)

He hides me in his shelter when there is trouble. He keeps me hidden in his tent. He sets me high on a rock.

Psalm 34:19 (NKJV)

Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalms 34:19 (TPT)

Even when bad things happen to the good and godly ones,

the Lord will save them and not let them be defeated by what they face.

Psalm 37:39-40 (NKJV)

But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. 40 And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.

Psalms 37:39-40 (TPT)

But the Lord will be the Savior of all who love him. Even in their time of trouble God will live in them as strength. 40 Because of their faith in him, their daily portion will be a Father’s help and deliverance from evil. This is true for all who turn to hide themselves in him!

Psalm 46:1 (AMPC)

God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable to temptation], a very present and well-proved help in trouble.

Psalm 50:15 (NKJV)

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.

Psalm 86:7 (NKJV)

In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, For You will answer me.

Psalm 91:14-16 (NKJV)

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. 15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. 16 With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.

Romans 8:37 (AMPC)

Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

Philippians 4:6 (PHILLIPS)

Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus.

Bob Yandian quote:

Because Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), that means that God had the answer before the problem ever came!

Ask for the deliverance, and then stand in faith!

These scriptures moved me away from my thoughts to God’s thoughts about my rough place. They let me know He was watching, and was ready to help me, and that He would be with me and would help me until the storm, the hard place, ended.

Action Points:

1. Do you become angry and defensive when facing a challenge, or do you humble yourself and ask, God, what are you seeking to show me?

2. Do you remember that in tough times God promises to deliver us?

3. Do you ask God to make a way out of the problem, and then do you stand in faith until the problem passes?

4. Do you have a network of friends? Are you a part of a small group?