When our troubles overwhelm us, we retreat into our own worlds which are like desert places. We are tempted to doubt God, to give up. But, we should use these desert places when we are alone to reconnect with God. You could find joy in your desert places. I have found joy in my desert places. When you go through the desert joyfully, God turns your deserts into pools of water. When you are isolated, use the time to find out what God requires of you, I can proudly say, “Thank you God, for my desert places, which increased my faith in You and in Your abilities.”

“For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But, when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me, and I declared to them Your name, and will declare it that the love with which You loved Me, may be in them and I in them. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name, those whom You gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But, now, I come to You and these things I speak in the world, that, they may have joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. But, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but, that You should keep them from the evil one, and sanctify them by Your truth that the world may believe that you sent me. Your word is truth!

When we go through fiery trials, it always seems like it goes on forever. But, we were meant to go through these trials, so that the Lord could strengthen us. What seems like a million years in our sight is like a day to the Lord when it is passed. My brothers and sisters in Christ, “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.” God is faithful. Trust him!

Many of us claim that God is our Father, yet, we are disobedient to Him at every turn, we know His will, yet, we fail to do as the Lord commands; but, His word reminds us, that, “He who knows the will of the Father and does not do it, shall be beaten with many stripes.” We must ask for God’s help to follow his commandments, we are not strong of ourselves, but, we can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Praise the Lord!

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must study God’s word diligently so that we may become more wise to his teachings. I had to read this chapter several times before getting it. But what 1 Corinthians chapter 8 is teaching us, is that, we must lead by good examples. Because, when we fail to do this, we cause others in our midst, those who look up to us to imitate us, and we need to be sure, that, we who are knowledgeable of who God is and what He means to us, do not mislead those who are weak in the faith and cause them to stumble. Praise the Lord!

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man.’ As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”

Though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. Habakkuk 3:17

We should make it a habit to lift God up at every turn; in the morning when we arise, at noon, at night, and the hours in between. For the Lord has done and continue to do great things for us, let us therefore rejoice and be glad in him, and say continually, “The Lord be magnified.”

Let the redeemed of the Lord, say, So! If you have been delivered by our gracious God, say, So! “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all of his bones; not one of them is broken. Those who hate the righteous shall be condemned, and none of those who trust in the Lord shall be condemned.”