Have you ever been through some storms in your life, where you felt like you weren’t going to make it but you did? That’s because God has a plan and a purpose for your life if only you’d believe! “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you,” says 1Peter 4:12-14. Trials are inevitable. Just for believing on the name that stand’s above every other name, Jesus Christ, we will get reproached, but it’s all good, cause in the end we win if we don’t lose heart and fall away. Numbers 23:19-20 says,” God is not human, that he should lie,not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.” If the Lord has spoken something over your life, He needs you to believe it and walk in it! Yeah that’s easier said than done, but without Him it’s even harder! See when we go through trials in our lives, God showed me we must first not count them strange but they are for our benefit! They get us to trust in Him even when we feel like He’s abandoned us, and purify the ugly that’s still lingering around inside of us. We have go back to His word and see just like He didn’t abandon the Israelites when God brought them out of Egypt He made a way for them, and He will make a way for you and I. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28 NKJV. Secondly, God always has our best interest in mind. There are things in our hearts and our lives that God wants gone, this is one of those ways. You’re actually not alone, all believers are either preparing to enter a trial, or are in one, or just came out of one. Now we have someone ready to encourage the rest of the body with what the Lord wants to help them to overcome. Thirdly, He has plans to get us to the other side, growth, promotion, and maturity! Matthew 14:22-31 reminds us, “Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Let us not just go through these trials when they come, but rather grow through them! For He Himself has said” I will never leave you nor forsake you”. So take courage before you were alone in this world, now that you have been brought close to the Lord because of the precious blood of Jesus, you are not alone.

Spiritual Spotlight 29