Problems sometimes seem insurmountable, but so did several of our past problems if you think about it. Many issues that once daunted our thoughts are now no more than distant memories. With God’s help and our trust in Him, we can endure what we cannot yet remove, and we can count it all joy when we meet trials, because the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. God tells us to ask for help and to cast our anxieties on Him, for He cares for us. We have been given the avenue to pray in Jesus’ name. As disciples of Christ, we are told to ask in faith, without doubting, and without asking amiss so that we may spend it on our pleasures. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working, and if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Sometimes the answer is grace to endure, as it was for Paul, rather than the removal of the thorn.

God wants us to accept His grace through obedient faith, so we can look forward to an eternal existence with Him—one without hardship, without pain, where there are no tears, full of joy and song. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, God has prepared for those who love Him.

Our short span of life on earth is not even like a speck of sand in outer space, yet a speck God deemed worthy of Christ, His only begotten Son, who died that we might be forgiven and live forever with God.

Whatever we do, we should include God and seek to pursue those things He asks of us in Scripture—not adding to or taking away from His Word.

see: James 1:1–8; James 4:3; James 5:16; Matthew 6:34; Matthew 11:28–30; Matthew 19:26; Matthew 21:22; John 3:16; John 14:13–14; 1 Corinthians 2:9; 2 Corinthians 12:8–9; Hebrews 5:9; Hebrews 13:14; 1 Peter 5:7; 1 John 5:14–15; Revelation 21:4; Deuteronomy 4:2; Revelation 22:18–19

GOD FIRST!