“….shine as lights in the world.”–Phil. 2:15

A man lay seasick in his bunk one stormy night during a long voyage across the Atlantic. He could hardly move from the severe discomfort. All of a sudden, he heard a cry of “Man overboard!” from the deck above. His first thought was, God help that poor fellow – there’s nothing I can do.

Then the thought struck him, There is something I can do. So he took his lantern and held it up to the porthole next to his bunk. The drowning man was rescued, and the next day he recounted, “I was going down in the darkness when someone put a light in a porthole. It shone on my hand and a sailor in a lifeboat grabbed my hand and pulled me in.”

“I’m too sick…” “I’m too weak…” “I’m not able enough…” Very often, people who fail to attempt anything for the Kingdom of God will use excuses like these. They see their weaknesses as debilitating and never take the initiative to do what they can.

But weakness is no excuse for not putting forth all of the strength we have for God’s purposes. And the truth is it’s in our weakness that God’s power is often shown the strongest. So whatever situation you may be in today, put forth the effort to share Christ and watch how God will use your weakness for His glory!

Pray that God would open your eyes to the ministry opportunities He’s placed around you – even when you face tough challenges.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”–Matt. 5:16

Think about these facts.

Fact #1- everything that was made exists for the glory of God. In fact, everything we do, eat, drink or say is all to be done for the glory of God.

Fact #2 – God who is all knowing and all powerful, created a world that he knew would rebel against him and be filled with evil. Couple that fact, with the first fact, and you can only conclude the third fact.

Fact #3 – there must be something about evil and suffering that can glorify God.

Listen to this verse in psalm 50 “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. ” (Psalm 50:15)

I would agree that if the most important value in life is our comfort, our well-being, our welfare, our health, our prosperity, then suffering and evil make absolutely no sense whatsoever. But, I submit to you that the supreme value in the entire universe is the glory of God and that is why the apostle Paul could put everything in perspective when he said in Romans 8:18, “.For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Nothing in this world is more important than the glory of God – nothing.

If you believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, all powerful, all knowing God who never makes a mistake and who cannot do evil, then you have to believe that all suffering, every tragedy, every disaster somehow can be used by that God for his glory.

I am going to put it very simply to you. If you focus on the problem of suffering you will never come to a satisfactory answer. God does not call us to focus on the problem of suffering; he calls us to focus on the promise of suffering. The promise of suffering is it is temporary, it can be used to strengthen our faith, there is a purpose behind it and ultimately God if we will let him will use both it and us for his glory. That is why when bad things happen to us instead of asking “why is it happening to us,” we need to be asking, “Lord what do you want to do with it?”

How do we apply this to our daily life? We do it in two ways. First of all, we remember whenever suffering, heartache, tragedy and disaster strikes us, that behind that disaster is a loving God who will walk with us through it, give us victory in it, use it for his glory and one day will permanently take both us away from it and it away from us. Remember this: the existence of evil does not eliminate the possibility of God. It is the existence of God that guarantees the elimination of evil.

Second, we don’t allow suffering to weaken our faith, but to strengthen it. God has promised that the blessing and the reward that awaits us in heaven that is permanent and unending is far greater than any suffering and sorrow we will experience on earth that is only temporary. Our all wise and all loving and all knowing God sees the current trial, but he also sees the end result. If he decides that on our behalf the current trial is worth it, then we accept it, believing he will use it for our good and ultimately for his glory. Then we will be able to say what another man in the bible, named Joseph, said about his own questionable suffering, “ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good” (Genesis 50:20)–James Merritt

“O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. “–2 Chr 20:12 

Jehoshaphat did not know what to do; he was altogether at his wit’s end; and yet he took the wisest course a man could take. This is the beauty of it; that when we are fools, then we are wise; when we are weak, then we are strong; when we know not what to do, then we do the only right thing. O had Jehoshaphat taken any other course; had he collected an army, sent through Judah, raised troops and forged swords and spears he would certainly have been defeated! But not knowing what to do, he did the very thing he should do. “Our eyes are upon you.” “You must fight our battles; you must take the matter into your own hands. Our eyes are upon you, waiting upon you, looking up, and hoping in you; believing in your holy name, expecting help from you, from whom alone help can come.”

But this is painful work to be brought to this point, “Our eyes are upon you,” implying there is no use looking to any other quarter. It assumes that the soul has looked, and looked, and looked elsewhere in vain, and then fixed its eyes upon God as knowing that from him alone all help must come.

This I believe to be the distinctive mark of a Christian, that his eyes are upon God. On his bed by night; in his room by day; in business or at market, when his soul is in trouble, cast down, and perplexed, his eyes are upon God. From him alone all help must come; none else can reach his case. All other but the help of God is ineffectual; it leaves him where it found him; it does him no good. We are never safe except our eyes are upon God. Let our eyes be upon him, we can walk safely; let our eyes be upon the creature, we are pretty sure to slip and stumble.–J. C. Philpot