Times can be really confusing for us.  Bad times will make us BETTER OR BITTER.  Affirming our faith and accenting our faith can make us BETTER. 

Wasn't Paul's faith FAR STRONGER after his trials?  Just listen to his words in 2 Timothy 4.6-8:

6  For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 

7  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 

8  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

A young preacher died in 1999 at the age of 44 in the prime of his ministry. WHY? One friend said, "God has got a lot of explaining to do."  But faith brought that preacher's friend through their grief.

Ecclesiastes 3:11b

He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the ability to fully understand what He does.

One college professor said in a funeral sermon, "We don’t know what God's purpose is, but we believe that He knows!"

Consider Habakkuk 1:5

"Then the LORD said to his people, ‘Keep watching the nations around you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it.’"

In other words, we couldn’t understand even if God did explain it!  Therefore we must learn to trust God when we don’t understand the "WHY'S."

Does a young child understand when a parent explains the science of why you shouldn’t lick a metal pole on a bitterly cold day?  Would you understand nuclear fission if a nuclear scientist explained it to you?  For that matter... WOULD HE??

We question the Process, but God works all things toward the Product!

Cocoon vs. butterfly; external vs. eternal;  wrapping paper vs. the gift; short term vs. the long term.

John 13.7:  Jesus answered him, "You do not understand now what I am doing, but you will understand later."

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was. As from the underside I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you go about your playing for awhile, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."

I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my View. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee." This I did only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy. Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, "Father, what are You doing?" He has answered, "I am embroidering your life." I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark." The Father seems to tell me, "'My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."   (Author unknown)

"Remain faithful unto death .." Rev. 2:10B
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Rod Farthing, ARM National Development Director   rodfar@arm.org
3127 Highway K, Salem, MO 65560