Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to come together, spend a few moments in God’s word and pray. This week, we will be talking about trials and challenges. Each one of us as believers, we will go through trials and challenges, but how we look at them is what is important. Psalm chapter 119, verses 50 through 56, ‘This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has given me life. The proud have me in great derision, yet I do not turn aside from your law. I remembered your judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Indignation has not taken hold of me because of the wicked, who forsake your law. Your statues have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I remember your name in the night, O Lord and I keep your law. This has become mine, because I kept your precepts.’ Our natural instinct is to think that suffering destroys, not only does it cause physical and emotional pain but it can poison our attitudes with anger, jealousy, bitterness and so on. We may even start to blame God for the awful things that are happening around us, dragging others into our bitterness in the process. How then do we find comfort in suffering? David writes, ‘my comfort in my suffering is this, your promise preserves my life.’ In verse 52, he adds, ‘I remember Lord your ancient laws and I find comfort in them.’ In other words, we take our direction from the word of God which feeds our soul and calms our fears. Paul writes, ‘but we also glory in our suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character and character hope.’ So, we can rejoice in our sufferings because it builds our character which will equip us for everyday trial that comes our way. God also comforts us through others. Paul speaks of a particularly difficult time in Macedonia when he says we were harassed at every turn, conflicts on the outside, fears within, but God who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. Titus was the disciple of Jesus Christ and supported and encouraged Paul in times of need. We maybe inclined to shut the world out when circumstances overwhelm us but a willing spirit listens to a fellow believer and is like a breath of fresh air reaffirming our faith. Above all, we can take comfort in an attitude of thankfulness to God. In our suffering, we can thank God for His presence and His sufficiency in them. Paul tells us ‘Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving make your requests known to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’ This is not a peace that we must stir up ourselves but a peace derived from God. It transcends human logic because we will find ourselves going about our days as though our problems have already been solved. We can endure through our darkest times because we are locked into the love of God. In Him, we are conquerors, not over our sufferings but in our sufferings. Sometimes, we turn to families, sometimes we turn to friends, doctors, therapists, pastors, self-help books; when all else fails, we turn to Christ as a last resort and indeed He needs to be our first resort. We can endure through our darkest times because of the love of Christ poured into our hearts. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy and your love that is always available for us through every trial, through every season and through every challenge. We thank you that you will comfort and strengthen us every side that we will give you glory and honor in our lives and in everything that we do, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.