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He is never closer than in our trials

I want to share with you two verses from Helen Spurrell’s translation of the original Hebrew text: “When designing pursuers approached me, who are far from thy law; then thou, O Jehovah, wast near, with all thy faithful commandments” (Psalm 119:150-151).

Embedded in this passage is a glorious truth that can change your life, bringing you peace and giving you rest beyond anything you have yet experienced. Once you understand the fact that God loves you and is continually near you, all fear and anxiety must go.

Faith for Times to Come

I can still remember how deeply affected I was by a song that came out several years ago. It’s called “Clear the Stage” by the musician Jimmy Needham.

The song speaks of how a great number of churches—including the last one I pastored—can make a big impression through smoke machines, giant video screens and massive racks of lights. Jimmy’s message was how easily we become dependent on outer trappings like these and end up missing Jesus.

Listening to the Cross Instead of the Accuser

Who told you that you’re unworthy, no good, useless, unusable to God? Who keeps reminding you that you’re weak, helpless, a total failure? Who told you that you’ll never measure up to God’s standard?

We all know where this voice comes from. It’s the devil himself. You hear his lies all day long, a voice that tells you God is continually angry with you. That voice comes straight from the pits of hell.

Every Christian has known mountaintop peaks and deep, dark valleys in their walk with Jesus. In my experience, it’s the valleys—the low places, trials and difficult times—that teach us how to be people of prayer, hope and courageous service.

Know that He is Completing a Good Work in You

“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12, NKJV). In this verse, Paul tells the Christians in Philippi not to worry about all the things they’d heard had befallen him. All those “things” he refers to included great afflictions and infirmities.

Seeing God’s Purpose Through Every Crooked Turn

Many Christians experience a turn in their lives they never see coming. When it arrives, it causes an ongoing trial they couldn’t imagine in their worst nightmares. Their life was on a blessed course, maybe one of ambition and achievement, desire and fulfillment, pursuing the things they feel God made them for. Life itself seemed like a straight line forward with a promising outlook and every good thing ahead. Then their lot in life took a crooked turn.

Pick Up Your Beggar’s Mat. It’s Your Message to the World!

How do you move forward when your circumstances say, “No way”? What do you do when your family is falling apart, you’re struggling financially, you’re discouraged and your heart overflows with pain? Is there a way forward when you can’t see a way?

Mark 2 shows us there is. When things seem impossible and we lose all hope of going on, Jesus faithfully makes a way where there is no way.

In Jeremiah 32, the prophet describes a dire scene. Jerusalem was surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army. Outside the city, the enemy was building large mounts to send their troops over the walls. Any Israelite who looked down on this scene was surely filled with a sense of doom.

Jeremiah was one of them. As the terrible scene unfolded, the prophet had to watch from a prison cell.

Not long ago, I began planning a book on the suffering of God's saints. I've wanted to encourage Christians about the Lord's faithfulness to his people in the midst of their trials. Since then, many readers have written to me, testifying of how God has given them grace in their times of suffering. One woman wrote of an enduring physical trial: