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Tough times don't last

31/01/2010 00:00:00 Dan Mdluli

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There are times when life suddenly takes an unexpected twist either for the worst or
for the best. In most cases it is for the worst.

When it takes an unexpected twist for the worst, in most cases, hope collapses at the feet of hopelessness, and faith gives way to faithlessness, and courage to perplexity. Unfortunately, it is during such times that despairing souls realise the veracity of the adage: When days are dark, friends are few.

It is during walks through the valley of desperation that even faithful men such as Prophet Jeremiah question God’s leading in their lives.
In his midst of troubles, Jeremiah lamented: “O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and has prevailed; I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me” (Jer. 20:7). When desperation veils the face of faith, every promise that the Lord makes in His word turns into an overused phrase, a cliché if you please.

Hard times render useless and senseless the saying: No situation is permanent.
Faithful men of faith like Job started blaming God for their misery, and at the height of his trials he mistakenly says: “…the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). And as he got even deeper into the mire of his misery, and with friends who never made things any easier for him, he further cried in desperation: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, there is a man child conceived. Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it” (Job 3:3, 4). However, had he known that his circumstance was as a result of Satan’s interference with his just life, he would not have erred in saying that God gives and takes away.

Only late in his experience does Job realise his folly, and admits: “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know” (Job 42:3). It should be mentioned that grinding moments of hardships and difficulties are workshops where the child of God has his/her faith purified. God’s child begins to understand that unless there is a “squeezing” of his/her faith, there will be no emission of some ‘sweet aroma.’

As I mentioned once in these articles, times of difficulty reveal the substance one’s faith is made of.
When God allows (not cause) fires of affliction assail the life of the faithfuls, the intention is to reveal the quality of material used in constructing the house of His child’s faith. In the avalanche of darts the enemy throws at God’s children during their lean times, the mouths of the faithfuls should, like David, say: “Yea though I walk through the valley shadowed with death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.” Therefore, there is plenty of truth in the sayings of some wise such as: Tough times don’t last but tough people do.

For God’s children, every situation is temporary. God will write the last sentence in their life story. In His allowing of bitter circumstances to unfold, His intention is to fit His children for the palace up above. Indeed, times of trial are meant to prove how abiding and enduring one’s faith in God is. But the same cannot be said of temptations. Temptations are meant to cause one to fail, and their source is the devil.
God never tempts His children but He tests them, and His tests are never to fail them but, as Ellen White, in the book Thoughts From the Mount of Blessings, says tests are meant to turn the faith of God’s children into precious stones polished ‘after the similitude of a palace.’

Times of testing therefore are God’s tools in His workshop of character building. Richard O’ Ffill, in his presentations on the Fruit of the Spirit currently under focus in my church, makes a powerful comment on the import of trials in the life of an individual.
He says: “…through a complete surrender of ourselves to the Lord, to grasping hold of Him in faith and obedience, no matter what we go through, we can come out better or more refined if we allow God to work in us.”
He further says: No one said it will be fun. Life here isn’t fun, but we are given this wonderful promise”, and he quotes the Apostle Paul: “Being confident of this one thing, that he which begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

In the darkest of days, when the virus of unbelief threatens to gnaw away your immune system of faith, that’s the time the faithful should turn their eyes upon Jesus.
Elsewhere in her book Ministry of Healing, White says: “We are not to let the future, with its hard problems, its unsatisfying prospects, make our hearts faint, our knees tremble, our hands hang down” (pg. 248).
Further, she says: “Those who surrender their lives to His guidance and to His service will never be placed in a position for which He has not made provision. Whatever our situation, if we are doers of His word, we have a Guide to direct our way; whatever our perplexity, we have a sure Counselor; whatever our sorrow, bereavement, or loneliness, we have a sympathizing Friend.”
In the twists and turns of life, times when the enemy speaks discouragement and despair, White says: “None need abandon themselves to discouragement and despair. Satan may come to you with the cruel suggestion, “Yours is a hopeless case.

You are irredeemable.” But there is hope for you in Christ. God does not bid us overcome in our own strength. He asks us to come close to His side.
Whatever difficulties we labour under, which weigh down soul and body, He waits to make us free” (pg 249).
She then beautifully concludes: “When temptations assail you, when care, perplexity, and darkness seem to surround your soul, look to the place where you last saw the light.”