The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. – Nahum 1:7
My parents were not Christians when they married, and consequently pursued worldly pleasures. However, Mom became concerned about their lifestyle and started looking for a way out of sin. She was saved through the encouragement of her brother, and then prayed for three years to have a Christian family before Dad was wonderfully saved and set free from the sins that had dominated his life. A new life began for them that was dramatically different than before! They started to have family prayer every day with their children and studied the Bible to learn as much as they could about how to serve God.
It would be nice to say that life was perfect after my parents were saved, but it was not. The Great Depression was just beginning then, and their faith was tried many times by their circumstances. Just before he was saved, the doctor had told Dad he had a heart condition that would leave him with only six months to a year to live. He became so ill and helpless that Mom was sure he was dying, but there was no medical treatment for him, nor money to pay for medical care. Instead, Mom and the older children prayed and he slowly recovered until he could work again.
During Dad’s illness we had little or no money, but God provided in miraculous ways. Sometimes He made what little we had stretch, and other times He put it in the hearts of other people to share what they had. One year the weather was so bad that no one’s garden grew, but God made our potato patch yield an enormous crop of potatoes! Those potatoes were the mainstay of our food the following winter.
The key to my parents’ testimony is that they never thought of turning back to the life they had before they were saved. Even though life was hard, their trust remained in God. He proved to them that He could take care of them, even in difficult circumstances. As Mom once stated, “We have trials, but we had trials before. Now we have the Lord to help us.”
Eventually the Lord blessed my parents with the ability to purchase a home and they no longer struggled as they had before. But the hard times will always be precious memories because it was through them that God taught my parents to rely on Him to care for them. What an invaluable lesson!
When we go through difficult circumstances, it is tempting to wonder if God has forgotten us and is no longer taking care of us. We may doubt that things will ever get better. Remember what our focus verse promises: God is good and He will overcome any challenge that comes up in life. He will provide and take care of us, and be glorified for it!