Hardships That Bring Preparation

O Lord, remember David and all the hardships he endured. —Psalm 132:1

Many people today, especially young people, want everything right now. They don’t want to be prepared. Or maybe you think you are beyond that stage of being prepared because of your age.

Perhaps you feel unappreciated at work, or the conditions in the office are so oppressive and so difficult that it is all you can think about. You can let your situation throw you and become your downfall, or you can accept it as being part of God’s preparation for you and allow it to turn you into one of the strongest human beings that ever lived. That’s what happened to David.

It may be that at some stage in your life God manifested His power and you knew you had a sure word from Him. There is not a single Christian who, at one time or another, doesn’t know the feeling of God speaking to him or her. Then a year goes by, and you begin to think, Lord, did You really speak to me?

David had to wait for years before what was promised him was fulfilled. After being anointed as king, he wasn’t immediately made king; it was only a word from God. David was still subject to Saul and had to flee from him. His anointing seemed to bring nothing but trouble.

One thing you can do while you are waiting is to submit to everything God allows to happen. All of these hardships David endured were part of his preparation.

We should be encouraged to know that whatever hardship we have gone through, even if the hardship was our own fault, God can take our life, work all over again, and make everything look as though it is the way it was supposed to be.

How do we cope with hardships? We have two choices: either we trust our vow to God, which in the end will give us more bondage and more guilt when we inevitably let God down, or we can trust God’s vow to us. We should trust His Word.

Excerpted from Higher Ground (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1995).