Do You Trust God in Your Times of Trouble?

Looking back over the past two weeks of study, the message of Faith and Trust has been a recurrent theme.  I can’t even begin to imagine how Mary and Joseph must have felt…..lonely, abandoned, scared, happy, excited……they knew they were part of something much bigger than anyone else understood.  They had faith and they trusted God. 

I know from personal experience that life can sometimes feel so heavy, stressful, and scary.  Let’s face it, even as Christians; there are days when we all face the future with great fears rather than great faith.  Psalm 50:15 states “Trust me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me the glory.”  

According to scripture, we are not instructed to “work harder in times of trouble” or “go to counseling in times of trouble” or “feel sorry for ourselves in times of trouble” or “post of Facebook in times of trouble” or a thousand other things that we, as humans, tend to do when life gets stressful.  Please understand, none of the before mentioned things are necessarily wrong and some can actually help, but none of them are the primary places to which we should turn in our times of trouble.  

God keeps it simple. “Trust me in your times of trouble.”  He will rescue us and when he does, we will give him glory because he did it.

When Mary and Joseph embarked on their journey as parents to Jesus, I am sure they thought things would be easier.  After all, they were chosen by God!  But as we have learned……nothing was easy for them, if anything, life was very difficult at times.

We can learn from their example.  When Mary was visited by the angel foretelling of her immaculate conception, she simply stated “I am a servant of the Lord”, “Let what you say be true to me” (Luke 1:38). And when Joseph learned of Mary’s pregnancy, he too had a difficult decision to make, leave or stay with her and raise the child.  After being visited by the angel, Joseph listened to and obeyed God and “did what the angel of the Lord had commanded and took Mary home as his wife” (Matthew 2:24); despite what it would mean to his reputation.  

And when Mary was in her last weeks of pregnancy, the decree for every person to take part in the census, led Mary and Joseph on a 70 mile journey from their home to Bethlehem.  When it was time for Jesus to be born, the only place they could find was a stable.  How horrified and scared they must have been…..but they did not waiver on their faith.  Mary and Joseph trusted God in their times of trouble and gave him praise.

I feel the messages we have been given the past couple of weeks are directly speaking to me.  I have grown spiritually and I see more clearly what I need to do in order to draw closer to, and deepen my faith and trust in God. 

I look forward to seeing you Sunday night as we study week 5 of the Christmas Experience.

Blessings!