May the God of All Grace...

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10

Many of us learn through the hard way as we weather through hard knocks in life. We "suffer" when we fail to learn from our own mistakes and miss drawing on His grace. The verse above me really inspired me – He alone is the GOD of ALL GRACE. And if we learn to draw on His Grace daily, He will restore us, after we have suffered a while...

To draw on His grace, we need to come to the realisation we must seek Him. Many think that that's easy - we all run to God when we have problems don't we? People only forget about God when times are good.

But friends, let me tell you that not only in good times you can forget the Lord. During bad times, you can also refuse to go to Him. What's the point? You may ask. If He is God, why is He allowing this? Anger, disappointment, rejection can cause you to reject God too...

So how to praise God when you are down. To me, there are two antidotes - word and praise. My favourite is the book of Psalms, especially Psalm 71, 42, 84 etc. The psalmists were totally transparent with God how they felt, when they were in despair, hopeless situations and even in danger of death. Read them. Make Psalm 71 your own prayer. Read Psalm 84 and remind yourself God is still your sun and shield...

And ask God to put a song in your heart. The beautiful thing about the psalms is they have inspired many songs of praise. Sing these when they come to you...

My friend, I tell you, when you praise Him inspite of your problems, despite the weak and inadequate or even wretched person that you are, there is liberation! Deliverance sort of take place! Your problems don't disappear. But your weaknesses get transformed into fresh resolve and strength!

Do you feel like you are suffering at the moment? Whether it is your own making or the making of others, come before Him today. Resolve to seek Him and praise Him.

And the God of ALL grace, after you have suffered for a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. Amen.