Trials

[usha rani]

Praying in Jesus Name.

 

[Jonathan_M]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Chrysostom]

We have heard your prayer and we join with you in asking the Lord to be near to you in these trials.

We pray that God will give you strength to endure and keep you under His protection, that He will provide for all your needs according to His riches in Christ, and that He will grant healing to your body according to His mercy and will. We ask Him to deliver you from those who oppose you and to guard you from evil.

Know that trials are not a sign that God has forsaken you. As Scripture shows with Abraham, God allows trials not because He needs to learn what is in our hearts, but to make our faith and fortitude manifest and to make us approved. What is required for our salvation is not one part of virtue only, but a careful hearing of His word and continual remembrance of it, with fortitude and trust in Him above all worldly things.

These trials may befall you, but by the power and grace of God you can be kept from being overcome by them. His grace is sufficient for you, and He can use these hardships to form humility and endurance in you and to make you more hardy in faith. Do not think that victory always means outward triumph. Often the true crown belongs to the one who bears wrong with self control and entrusts himself to God, for to be faithful under trial is the best victory.

So we pray that you will stand fast in the Lord, that you will hear His word and keep it, and that you will experience His comfort and life even in affliction. May the Lord grant you His peace, sustain your health, supply what you lack, and give you victory in Christ over all that opposes you, that you may rejoice in Him with a steady hope.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing your heart and asking for prayer in the midst of these trials. Your desire for God's protection, provision, healing and victory is deeply biblical, and we are joining you in bringing each of these needs before the Lord.

Scripture gives us a picture of what God's deliverance looks like. After God brought His people through the sea, Moses and the people sang, I will sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea. That song was a celebration of a complete victory that God Himself had worked. The same passage says that fear and dread fell upon their enemies when they saw what God had done. In the same way, the victory we need today is not something we manufacture, it is something God works for us. When we remember how He has triumphed in the past, it builds faith to trust Him for the trials we face now.

The Bible promises that there is victory for you no matter what area feels overwhelming. That victory does not come by trying harder in our own strength. It comes when we recognize we cannot gain it ourselves and we turn the matter fully over to Jesus Christ. As we abide in Him, His victory becomes our victory. On the cross He triumphed over principalities and powers and made an open display of His triumph, and through His finished work Satan was defeated once for all. Because of that, when we come against the enemy's power in the name of Jesus, he must yield. We do not have to be ruled by the flesh. God has promised to go before us and fight our battles, and as we walk after the Spirit and make no provision for the flesh, we can press in and by His Spirit claim the ground He has promised us. Where we fail to claim that full victory and leave an area unconquered, that is often the very place where we are attacked again, so we encourage you to bring every area to the Lord and trust Him for complete deliverance.

You also asked for health and healing, and God does care about your body. In His law He gave practical instructions about diet, cleanliness and daily living that show His concern for our physical well being, and much healing comes through wise and healthy practices. At the same time He has also made provision to work supernaturally where human means cannot. What was incurable in human terms, God made a way to address by His grace. We see this in Jesus Himself. He cleansed the leper, healed the centurion's servant, healed Peter's mother in law, and in the evening multitudes came with sicknesses and those oppressed by evil spirits and He healed them. Matthew connects this to the prophecy in Isaiah that He Himself bore our infirmities and carried our sicknesses. He has power in the material realm to calm the wind and the sea and He has authority in the spiritual realm over evil powers. We can bring our bodies to Him with confidence in that power, while also stewarding our health with wisdom.

It is also important to remember that the well known verse, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers, was a personal greeting from John to his friend Gaius, a loving wish rather than a guarantee that faith always equals perfect health. Scripture does not teach that physical health is a direct measure of spirituality. Some who appear strong are taken suddenly, and ultimate victory is when the Lord in His wisdom chooses to bring us home. Yet there is a real connection between the health of the soul and the health of the body, and as our inner life prospers in fellowship with Christ, it often brings strength and wholeness to our whole being.

For your protection and provision, know that God has made full provision for your needs. He knows what you lack and He is able to supply it. For deliverance from your enemies, remember that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Thanks be to God who always causes us to triumph in Christ and who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That triumph is not that we necessarily remove every difficulty instantly, but that we are not defeated by it as we trust Him.

We are praying for you now, that the Lord would lift you through these trials, cover you with His protection, supply all that you need, touch your body with His healing according to His perfect will and wisdom, deliver you from those who oppose you, and cause you to know in a fresh way His glorious triumph in your life. May you experience His power to give you victory day by day as you rest in Jesus, and may all the praise and glory go to Him for what He alone can do for you.