Romans 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Senior Living told this story of a churchgoer who wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. The letter read as follows:

“I’ve gone to church for 30 years now. In that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So, I think I’m wasting my time, and the pastors are wasting their time.”

This started a real controversy in the Letters to the Editor column. It went on for weeks until someone wrote the following clincher:

“I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

Quite often, people downplay the importance of church attendance simply because it doesn’t give them the “spiritual high” they’re looking for each and every week. But church doesn’t exist to make you feel good. It exists to glorify God!

Stay in church; learn and grow with other believers. While you might not remember everything, you can be sure that if you have a willing heart, you’re being transformed into Christ’s likeness!

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.–Proverbs 16:9

How many times have we thought to ourselves, “This is not at all what I planned”? More than a few suspect! It is quiet common for us to find ourselves in a situation like that. And there is a reason for it. J. R. Miller explained it well:

“There are few entirely unbroken lives in this world; there are few men who fulfill their own hopes and plans, without thwarting or interruption at some point. Now and then, there is one who in early youth marks out a course for himself — and then moves straight on in it to its goal.

But most people’s lives turn out very different from their own early dreams. Many find at the close of their life, that in scarcely one particular, have they realized their own life-dreams; at every point God has simply set aside their plans — and substituted His own. There are some people whose plans are so completely thwarted, that their story is most pathetic. Yet we have but to follow it through to the end, to see that the broken life was better and more effective, than if their own plans had been carried out.”

This is why we take such great comfort in Romans 8:28,”And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. It will help us deal with our disappointments if we remember that God’s purpose is more important than our plans. It is always better that His purpose be done than our plan fulfilled. God is working in your life for your good and His glory. When your plans get in the way of His purpose they need to go! And we should never protest. What appears to you to be a setback just might be the way for your comeback. Our plans are thwarted so His purpose can triumph, and that’s all that matters.

“O Lord, by these things men live; and in all these things is the life of my spirit.” Isaiah 38:16

When Hezekiah said, “By these things men live,” he meant that by these trials and deliverances, by these sinkings and risings, strippings and clothings, emptyings and fillings, “by these things men,” that is, spiritual men, “live.” It is a mystery, but a great truth, that just in proportion as we die to the world, to self, to sense, to nature, and to false religion, the more the life of God is strengthened in our conscience. The Lord, perhaps, has taught some of you this truth through great afflictions. But when these trials came upon you at the first, it seemed as though they would entirely overwhelm you; they took away your standing, and it appeared as though they had destroyed your faith and hope.

But though these floods of temptation passed over the soul, they swept away nothing but rubbish—. So far then from these afflictions overwhelming your faith, you found that faith was secretly strengthened by the very flood that threatened at first to drown it. True faith is no more destroyed by sharp trials, than the oak is destroyed by cutting away the ivy, or by a storm blowing down some of its rotten branches. And thus, as the oak, the more the winds blow upon it, takes a firmer root in the soil; so the storms and tempests that blow upon the soul, only cause it to take a firmer hold of the truth, and to strike its fibers more deeply into the Person, love, work, and blood of Jesus. So that, “by these things men live,” for through them, the life of God is maintained and kept up in the soul, the Holy Spirit secretly strengthening it by the very things that seemed to threaten it with destruction.—Author unknown

Perhaps you are facing something today that has stretched you to your limits. You hurt and no one is there to help. You are looking for answers and God isn’t talking. What now? The answer to your dilemma is found in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” It worked for others and it will work for you!

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19).

The word “afflictions” speaks of something common to everyone. However, the phrase, “the righteous” tells us that the assurance of deliverance is reserved for only a certain class of people. Try to imagine how awful it would be to have no hope of deliverance from your trials. Then think about how wonderful it is to have the blessed assurance set-forth in this verse. Warren Wiersbe wrote:

The psalmist does not say, “I thought the Lord kept us out of afflictions. I thought that if I read my Bible every day and prayed and tried to obey His will, I would never have any afflictions.” Instead, he says that we will face many afflictions.

Why do we have afflictions in our lives? We have some afflictions simply because we are human. They are just a part of human life. We get older, and our bodies begin to run down. Not every sickness, every accident or every problem we face comes because God is angry at us or is disciplining us. They may just be a part of life.

We also have afflictions because Satan is against us. He’d love to destroy us. Or, afflictions may come because we have disobeyed the Lord. I’m glad for those; I’m glad that God loves me enough to “spank” me when I’ve disobeyed Him.

But often, afflictions are God’s tools for helping us grow. We don’t really grow until we’ve been through the furnace, through the storm or through the battle. God is not raising hothouse plants that shrivel when the hot wind blows on them. No, He wants to raise mature sons and daughters, and that’s why we have afflictions. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (v. 19). He doesn’t keep us out of them. He delivers us from them. Sometimes He changes the circumstances. Sometimes He changes us. The real secret of deliverance is not the circumstance around you but the faith within you. Expect affliction, but trust God for deliverance.