This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Greetings! I am praying that as you read this you are experiencing great days, filled with blessings of health, financial security, love, joy and peace. However, if that is not the case and your days have been filled with trials and difficulties, please know that you are not alone. So many of us have been experiencing a season of difficulties. Some are facing unimaginable hardships and each day to them feels like years as they wonder how in the world they can carry on.
Dear Friend, Sing praises to God if you are having good days. To those of you who are going through the trial of your life, you need to praise him even more. James 1:2-4 clearly speaks to us. It reads, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So, it instructs us to count our situation as pure joy. Why? We are to praise God because all these difficulties are working towards making us mature and complete children of God by producing in us perseverance (patience). Hooray! (Smile)
None of us enjoy going through hard times, but we do want to be all God has created and designed for us to be, don’t we? This is what life at the Crossroads is all about. It is where the rubber meets the road. It is where we live out God’s word daily with his help and by his grace. Isn’t that what we want?
While this has been a difficult season for me with Joe’s health issues and related financial challenges, along with ministry and family responsibilities as I recover from Kidney transplant surgery, each day, I get up, dress up and show up, trusting in our faithful Lord to be with me as he has promised. No matter what life throws our way, we serve an awesome God. He loves us and has promised never to leave us or forsake us. He is with you. You are not alone. This is the day he has made and he knew everyone of your days before there was one of them. Here are a few scriptures to consider as you face your day:
When you feel like God is taking a long time to deliver you from an overwhelming situation – But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 NIV
When you are tempted to worry – Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
While each day has enough trouble of its own, please know that God has not left you to face it alone. – For in the day if trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:5
God knows what you are going through and is able to replace your afflictions with gladness as revealed by this prayer – Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. Psalm 90:15
God is good all the time. No matter what your days have been like recently, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
Eartha Pinder Harris, President
Crossroads Ministries Inc. 