Daily Thought For July 15, 2016

The Value of Adversity

NO MATTER WHAT HARDSHIPS THE WORLD MAY THROW AT YOU, YOU HAVE—IN ME—EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO PERSEVERE. Despair is a deep pit, and sometimes you totter around its edges, precariously close to falling in. Your only hope at such times is to fix your eyes on Me. The more perplexed you are—bewildered by complex circumstances—the easier it to lose your balance. To keep from falling, you must change your focus from your circumstances to My Presence. This requires strenuous effort on your part because you have not fully accepted the limitations of your mind. Your natural tendency is to keep thinking about a difficult situation ad nauseam—trying to figure it out. However, I am always nearby, eager to help you change your focus time after time. 

Though you may be hard pressed on every side, you need not be crushed by your difficulties. You are not alone in your battles because I will never ever abandon you. Even if you are struck down by a fatal blow, you will not be destroyed. I am the Shepherd and Guardian of your soul—the part of you that is indestructible. I give you eternal Life, and you will never perish. No one can snatch you out of My hand! 

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  
— 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8-9 

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 
— HEBREWS l2:2 

For you were continually straying like sheep. but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. 
— 1 PETER 2:25

I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 
— JOHN 10:28 

from Jesus Lives by Sarah Young pp.40-41