When we are grasping for lifelines, when we are in tears, when we feel that our lives are unraveling, in those very moments when we most need the Lord to intervene and change our lives the most dramatically we often make the statement "Take it away Lord!"  In the most difficult challenges of our lives we look to God and often ask Him to take it away, to erase the trial, to change the circumstance, or to take us out of it.  Yet, He most often chooses to leave it as it is, to leave us in it, to make us endure the trial.  We must therefore ask ourselves why He does this, because when the Lord does something there is a reason.

I asked God to do that for me in the midst of my trial, more then once, and I asked Him why He didn’t, why He made me endure it.  His answer every time was to stop asking Him to take it away and to start depending on Him for the strength I needed to endure it, and to allow Him to take away the fear I had that made me ask Him to remove it.   It is fear that forces us to ask Him to do this, because we fear we will not endure.  He was forcing me to depend on Him rather then on myself for what I needed to endure the trial.  He was answering the promises He had made to give me strength, comfort, peace, and shelter.  He was changing who I was while I was enduring the trial, He was changing me more then ever before during my walk with Him.  He was molding me into who He desired me to be.

So is He going to take us out of the trial or change the circumstances around us when we cry out desperately to Him in trial? Only if that is what will give Him the most glory. U sing every circumstance to mold us into the person He needs us to be, to do what He wants us to do for Him is what He chooses instead. Molding us is His desire.  As we become more and more like Him our fellowship with Him is more intimate. He died so that He would once again have fellowship with us. Why would He remove that which allows Him to mold us the most?  Molds us the most? Yes, admit it, trial molds us the most. At least I can admit that, for I know that in the years I have faced my trial with the Lord I have learned more about the Lord and His desires for my life then in all the years I walked with Him previous to that.  As a result of that my relationship with Him is more intimate, and that is His desire.

So the Lord chooses not to remove us from trial in order to mold us, to teach us, to show us how He works in our lives, so that we will depend on Him so that our level of intimacy with Him will increase immeasurably.  I know that the Lord is molding me in the midst of trial, that He is fulfilling His promises while doing that, and that He so desires to have fellowship with me that He died to gain that.  I am certainly not going to squander that, I am going to lay myself upon God’s Anvil and allow Him to make me more and more like Him every day so that my fellowship with Him can become more intimate. For I know that as that fellowship gains intimacy I gain more insight into who my Lord is, what He desires of me, and how I can fulfill that. After all, pleasing Him is my most ultimate desire.

I have to be honest, there have been times the weight of my trials have just brought me to tears before God. What about you? If we are all honest we can likely say yes.  Then there are those times we refuse to cry because perseverance is the ability to withstand the pressure of a trial and remain strong under it.  Is that really the truth however?

Have you ever thought about that question?  What perseverance isn’t.  It isn’t faking, it isn’t putting on a mask and pretending.  It isn’t a vain attempt at pretending we are capable of holding up under pressure and stress while we are collapsing on the inside, unable to ask for help in an honest way even before God.  What?  If we are not honest about the pressure, honest about what it is doing to us, then we will not be honest about the need for help.  If that is the case, then the pressure continues to build because we have now put ourselves in the way of receiving the help we so desperately need.  Often it is us that needs to get out of the way so we can get what we need.

At the same time we need help, we block it from coming.  By making ourselves believe we are doing fine by lying to ourselves, and to others, we are the cause for our own suffering.  Yes the world can be cruel, it can be difficult, and it can be the source for trials.  However, there is available to us help, but if we do not allow ourselves to be honest we will not receive what we are need of.

This help, the Lord.  Yet He is not going to force upon us a solution we do not ask for, or a will we do not want to follow.  He has for us promises 0f comfort, peace, strength, shelter, and help.  Yet if we are not honest about our need, we are not going to accept what He is offering to help us for those needs.  It is much like the independent child refusing the needed help from the parent, when the parent knows they have what the child needs, and the parent knowing they cannon force the child to accept it.  God has what we need, but our refusal to be honest about our need blocks His ability to give it to us.  We need to get out of the way of the giving

What excuses might we use?  I am sure you have your own, I have had mine.  Our emotions can sometimes wreak havoc on our ability to admit our need.  Maybe you say I just don’t cry, I can’t cry it will show my weakness, I refuse to show my anger, I get too angry, I am depressed, I am overwhelmed with grief, I am burdened with sorrow, I am extremely lonely, or some other overwhelming feeling that you don’t know how to express.  Remember this–Christ felt every possible emotion you have ever felt when He walked this earth, only He felt it pure and unchanged by sin.  That means He understands that emotion even better then we do ourselves.  As well, the Lord created us with these emotions, so His understanding of them is perfect, so His help will be the perfect help we need in that moment.

What we must do is go to Him in honesty, with a full outpouring of our emotions and what we need.  He is listening, and wants to know our burdens.  He is not fooled by our masks and our attempts to hide our inner most thoughts, desires, and needs.  We must always go to Him honestly if we expect to gain the things that we need the most, for He has not only promised them, He desires to give them to us.  We must get out of the way of the giving.

Perseverance-the ability to withstand the trial we are now facing, and the ability to face the trial we are about to endure, while remaining steady in our faith.  Is perseverance something that happens to us, or something we become capable of doing?  I am going to borrow an acronym from my pastor who shared this with us this past Sunday:

P ursue

E verything

R elentlessly

S hirking

E xcuses

V aliantly

E xpecting

R ighteous

E ndurance

Using those words it sounds like perseverance is very active!  Perseverance is not something that simply falls upon us.  In 1 Timothy 6:11 Paul tells Timothy to pursue endurance, amongst other things.  If endurance is something you pursue, than it certainly isn’t something that just happens. Pursuing is active.  Pursuing something is what we do when we want something more than anything else we might give up while on that pursuit.  What might be the "everything" referred to in this acronym"?  In 1 Peter 3:10-12 we find the word pursue again "he must seek peace and pursue it." Peace, a good thing to pursue, but why stop there, why not pursue all the fruits of the spirit! (Gal 5:22-23 )

The opposite of pursue would be to get away from, to purposefully and diligently do all we can to avoid something in our lives.  In this acronym the word Shirking is used.  Good word when it comes to Shirking Excuses!  Someone who has perseverance is not going to use their trial as an excuse to shirk their responsibility to others.  But most especially they will not use it to shirk their responsibility to God.  When the Lord is faithful to us in trial, how much faith are we showing when we use our trial as an excuse not to do what the Lord is asking of us.  Look at Paul in Acts 21:10-13 , if anyone had the best excuse it was Paul, he knew what was coming.  Yet he refused to use it because his faith was bigger than the trial he would face.  Once again perseverance becomes active, because we must choose to act on our knowledge that God has made promises that He will keep, and that his plan is for us to prosper.  We must act on our faith, our perseverance becomes active when we make decisions based on what we know about the Lord rather than the situation we are in or are about to be in.  That is what Paul did, he made his decision to act based on what he knew about the Lord.  Active perseverance.

Paul’s decision was based on what he knew about the Lord because he knew the Lord would act on His promises.  The Lord promised never to leave us, to always be with us. (Matt 28:20 )  He was expecting righteous endurance, an endurance based on what the Lord had promised him, not on what he could do on his own.  In the same way Paul acted based on what he knew about God, so must we.  When we act based solely on the circumstance we are in we fail to recognize that the One who is in us is greater then the one who is the world, and that He is able to do far more then we ask or imagine. (1 Jn 4:4 , Eph 3:20 )  Endurance is acting on what we know about the Lord rather then our circumstance.

Endurance is active, active in attitude and in action.  We should pursue it, we should look to act on what we know of God rather then our circumstance when we make decisions.  Sometimes we need to do the opposite of pursue-but that is when it comes to excuses and we shirk those, because our trial is never bigger than what God has planned.  Perseverance is not going to just happen, it isn’t just going to become part of you, make a decision in your trial today based on what you know about God rather then your situation and that is perseverance.

Have you ever held something in your hand and hit it with a hammer? You feel the blow of the hammer, every vibration.  The hammer holder always feels every vibration of the hammer as it hits it mark, even if what the hammer is hitting isn’t in their hand.  This is no different when God is the hammer holder and He is molding us on His Anvil.  As He uses His hammer to mold us He feels those vibrations, every bit of it because He is not only holding us, but He also lives in us.  As believers the Holy Spirit indwells us (1 Cor 6:19 ), so as God is molding us, He is experiencing the molding process along with us.  More so even still, as the process effects our life, He knows exactly what the process feels like to us in an intimate and personal way.  How is this possible?

God in His infinite wisdom made it possible.  Jesus Christ lived on earth fully man and fully God (Jn 8:48-59 ).  He felt every emotion from love to pain, hurt to joy, each emotion that we feel in the molding process as humans.  Only, when Christ felt these emotions He felt them with an intensity we cannot understand because they were pure, not clouded by sin.   So, as Gods hammer molds us He knows the exact way it makes us feel each time in each moment.

We can never say to God that He is giving us more then we can bear as He holds the hammer in the molding process.  First, because He promises He won’t allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.  (1 Cor 10:13 )  Secondly, because He feels each hit of the hammer as He molds us.  Any emotion you can name, He is not going to give you more of it then you can bear.  He is experiencing the molding process along with you, and knows how this process is effecting you.  If there is a pain, sorrow, frustration, anger, hurt, or any emotion you are holding out to God and saying "Why?" remember that He is bearing it with you, that He knows intimately and personally how you feel (Heb 2:18 ).  Rather then asking Him "Why?", consider crying to Him "Help!"  Since He has experienced all of it, and has infinite wisdom, He is the best source for the help you need.

For us "When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left." (Luke 23:33 )  Next "Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."" (Luke 23:34 )  Those around despised him "The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One." The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself." There was a written notice above him, which read:|sc THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS." (Luke 23:35-38 )  Except for one man, who realized what was happening, one of the thieves next to him being crucified for his crimes.  "Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:42-43 )

For us Jesus Died.  "It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last." (Luke 23:44-46 )  He was dead.  The sinless Lord had taken on the sins of all of us and died on a cross like a common thief.  For us he was buried, "Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid." (Luke 23:52-53 )

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus" (Luke 24:1-3 )  Where has he gone, what has happened?  He has already done so much for us-it cannot have ended like this-with him being gone!  Now two messengers appear "suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground" (Luke 24:4 ) and they deliver the best words we could hear:

""Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!" (Luke 24:5-6 )

For us He was crucified buried and rose again.  For us.  On that day when He rose and defeated death he gave us the ability to do the same by spending eternity with Him.  That is the purpose of why He did this for us.  Eternity with Him is the outcome of what He did in those days.  And all of it was done for us because of grace and mercy out of a Love we can not comprehend.  To not recognize that God wants a relationship with us when He did this for us is simply denying the obvious.  If you have never cried out to God, like the thief on the cross recognizing who Christ was, and believed that Christ did this for you don’t deny the obvious any longer.  He did this for you.

If you need to do this the first step is admitting to yourself that you are a sinner and that trusting in yourself or anything you can do is not sufficient.   Then you need to trust in Christ and what He did do on the cross when He died for your sins.  To affirm your decision say this prayer “Lord I know that I am a sinner incapable of doing anything that would allow me into heaven on my own.  I believe that Jesus died on the cross, and that His death paid for my sins.  Thank you for giving me a way.  Amen.”

Weighed down by stress, burden, trial, or decision, we began to feel anxious.  Many questions may come to our mind "am I doing the right thing?" "what should I do?" "whats going to happen?" "how am going to handle this?" "why is this happening?".  Anxiousness is part of the package, or so it seems.   There is something to be said on that subject in Philippians 4:6-7 . "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  A clear promise of God to give peace to those who make their requests known to God.

Now this does not come without a request on Gods part.  He asks that we make our requests "by prayer and thanksgiving".    We must first make our request known to God.  Yes He knows our need, but requesting it shows humility and a lifestyle of prayer and communication with God.  We must also go to God with thanks because we believe He is faithful to His promises.  Once we have made our request in prayer and thanksgiving we receive a peace "which transcends all understanding".  In John 14:27 Christ says "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."  The peace we receive from the Lord is not a peace that is like that of the world.  It is a peace beyond that which we can gain from any other source.  It transcends understanding because it is beyond that of this world, it is from God himself.  There is no other peace that compares to the peace that comes from the Lord.

What is the source of your anxiousness?  Take it to the Lord in prayer, with thanksgiving because you know He is faithful to fulfill His promises.  One of these promises is to relieve your anxiousness.

When was last time you really listened for quiet?  You know the absolute absence of any noise.  It is nearly impossible anymore to find that.  Try to think of one place where you could go to find absolute quiet.  No noise at all.  No hum, no buzz, no ticking, nothing.  Even now I bet there is noise around you where you are.  I can hear the fan on my computer going!  It is hard to find a place of quiet in our world.  Sometimes it gets so noisy it becomes hard to hear the very thing we are trying to hear!  How many times a day do we say or have someone say to us "what did you say?" because other noise was to loud around.

In our life noise can be a problem in more ways then one.  When we are experiencing a trial we often start discovering that very thing.  We discover how much noise in our life distracts us from hearing what God is trying to tell us and what He is doing in our life.  During a time of trial we want to hear His voice,we want to know what He is up to, and we may find out how much "noise" is preventing us from hearing the very voice we want so desperately to hear.  We begin to fear that God is not with us because we do not hear Him, because we think He is distant.  However Isaiah 41:10 says in part "So do not fear, for I am with you". (Is 41:10 NIV )  He has not left, we just need to be listening.  However part of what happens is we let a lot of noise get in the way.

What kind of noise?  The noise of the situation for one thing.  When life seems at it worst it can be an easy trap for us to focus on the temporal situation rather then our eternal goal and prize.   In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Paul says  "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Cor 4:17-18 NIV )  We need to remember that God promises us an eternal glory that is far better then that which we are temporarily experiencing now, that which He is now preparing us for.  We cannot let the noise of the situation interfere with that promise.  Yes the reality exists and must be dealt with, but we must not allow that to block out what we know to be true of God and His promises.

Another kind of noise that gets in the way is the noise we create all on our own.  The noise that we decide somehow takes precedence over listening to what God is telling us.  It might be some priority in our life that is important, some mundane task, something fun, something meaningless.  The question is how much of the noise are you creating yourself by placing more importance on other things in your life over God?  When we have so much going on in our life that we squeeze out God, we are creating too much noise.  When our schedules are crammed, and our life is hectic, when our time is so under demand, and everything seems behind, do we listen to all that noise?  What happens when we create enough noise in our lives that we think God is silent?  He is still there, right where He was.  Isaiah 41:10 says it.  We need just to remember that though noise is constant, so is God.  Yes there is always noise, but when we are creating it ourselves we cannot expect that we are going to hear God through it all unless we make a different choice.

We need to people who are listening.  People who are willing and ready to hear.  God does not force His voice upon us.  He asks that we listen and tells us we will know His voice if we do.  Like sheep who know their shepherd’s voice, we will know His for He is our shepherd.  Christ tells us this very thing in John 10:1-5 when He tells us about the Shepherd and His flock.  We need to be people who stop listening to all the wrong noise around us, stop creating noise of our own, and start listening for the shepherd’s voice.  We will know it, and when we hear it we will be able to focus more easily on what is unseen, the eternal glory that outweighs what we are expierencing now.

We know our past, we know where we came from, and we know what we are going through right now.  We all hope that we are going to have something better happen soon, especially when we are going through trial, when things seem rough and at the worst.  A new beginning, a new start, a new way of doing things, a new place to be, something new in our situation to change the way it is.  We don’t know what that might be, when it might come, but we do know one certainly, we have a hope that is certain when we have trusted Christ.

Romans 8:18-21 says "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." (NIV)

Regardless of what we may endure now, our hope is in Christ and what will occur when our glory is revealed because of the relationship we have with him.  To eagerly await what will happen when our glory is revealed when we are set free from the bondage we are currently in helps us realize the magnitude of what Christ did to make it possible.  The knowledge that what we are currently experiencing is only temporary and fleeting compared to the amazing future that awaits us can not be considered anything but hope.

Hope.  The future for anyone who has trusted Christ.  It matters not what might happen now, for hope is what the future holds.

When traveling have you ever ended up at a completely different destination then originally intended when you left your house?  That can happen, but it would be rather unusual.  I would suspect if we had airline pilots who told us "I am going to take you to a completely different destination today as a surprise!" we would not generally consider that a good surprise.  Even if we ended up in a beautiful tropical location we always dreamed of visiting, having intended to go to a family reunion!  Our reaction might be one of shock, surprise, dismay, and eventual utter disarray and confusion.  The reaction can be as varied as the individual.  The outward reactions might be anything from humorous to scary as a matter of fact.  The internal reactions however would be where the real fight took place, and what really would matter when the plane landed at its destination.  How one reacted to the original news, and handled the flight int he middle, would determine how one would react to the news of where they eventually landed.

Our internal reactions is where we battle everyday when we are faced with major U-turns in our life.  The big trails that test us for the long term.  The trails that continue for longer then a bump, a detour, or road block.  These trials are the trials that completely alter the course of our plan and place our trust in Gods plan on an every day basis.  We start asking "God what exactly are you doing to me?"  How we react is in our control, and we can choose to run to God or away from Him.  Which we choose to do is going to make a dramatic difference in what we focus on during the trial.  That focus will determine our state of mind, our emotional well being, and our spiritual strength as we run the race that lays before us.  We are to fix our eyes on Christ, who endured the cross and sat down at the right hand of God. (Heb 12:1-2 ).

Focusing on Christ is what will determine our ability to withstand the trial, because He is where our focus lies, the goal is the prize of heaven and its reward (Phil 3:12-14 ).  When we began to lose our focus that is when we stumble, and it becomes easy for the enemy to attack us with lies.  How do we stay focused in our trial, in the midst of a U-turn?  First, we remember that God knew it was coming and intends it for our good (Jer 29:11 ).  Second, we recall that God does not change regardless of our circumstances (Mal3:6 , Jas 1:17 ).  The third step requires action on our part, we need to be sure we are an active participant in our relationship with Christ.  What does that mean exactly?  Prayer, reading Gods Word, and fellowship with believers.  Even if you are in a place in your relationship with Him where none of that is happening, it can.  The smallest gesture on our part connects us to God in a powerful way.  He desires to connect to us, He wants a relationship with you so badly He sent Christ.  So if you are in a place of confusion or disarray, simply go to God with a "Help!  I need you!"  He is there waiting to hear your voice.

If you don’t have that relationship because you have never trusted Christ and what He did on the cross, that is where it begins.  The story of how I trusted Christ can be found here:  www.LayingOnGodsAnvil.com .  I hope that you would take the opportunity to read it, and pray that you trust Christ and what He did on the cross for you.