Daily Devotions
When the Pain Doesn't Stop
Title: When the Pain Doesn't Stop
Reading for July 24: Isaiah 32-34
Weekly reading for July 22-28: Matthew 1-4
And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
Matthew 4:2-3
What do you do when a trial drags on? It's one thing to go through a momentary period of suffering, but when the pain does not stop it can really try our faith. It causes even the strongest to ask the question, "Where is God?"
The children of Israel asked this question many times in the wilderness. Moses explained to them in Deuteronomy why they went through so many trials. He told them that when they were hungry, fed with manna every day, that this was to humble them and test them, so that God might know what was in their heart, whether they would keep his commandments (Deut 8:2). He wanted them to learn that there is more to life than just bread, that we truly live by trusting in the words of God (Deut 8:3).
When we are suffering a severe trial (especially one that drags on and on), it is easy to forget that God still loves us. The devil wanted Jesus to doubt God's love for Him as well. He attacked Jesus when He was physically drained and hungry. He wanted Jesus to question whether He really was God's Son.
We must respond to these trials with the same faith Jesus had. He went into the wilderness to blaze a trail of faith for us. Let us follow Him through the dry and dusty wilderness with the assurance of God's love for us, believing in our hearts that the Word of God is more important to us than bread.
You have said, "Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face, LORD, do I seek."
Hide not your face from me.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
O God of my salvation!
