TOUGH TIMES

These are difficult days. They are difficult for different reasons. The economy has wreaked havoc on most family's budgets and it promises to get worse before it gets better. Many people are losing their jobs. Crime in our area is skyrocketing. Our recent election has many people very nervous about what the future of our country is going to be. And I've never known so many people to be sick or to have sick family members. I'm not just talking about elderly people, though there are a lot of those, but I also just seem to be hearing more and more from even children and young people who are battling catastrophic ailments. I sat in a meeting at church earlier this week as prayer requests were shared and it was heartbreaking the burdens many are carrying.

Does God care? Does God put all this on us just to make us miserable and to watch us suffer? Absolutely God cares and no, He doesn't enjoy our suffering. But He does USE our suffering to refine us and to test us. It is a painful place to be.

Os Hillman offers a word of encouragement to those who are in that place of suffering right now...whether it be from physical ailments, relationship heartaches, broken families, financial burdens, loss of jobs.....whatever your situation, I pray that God will speak to you and encourage your heart through this word....

Prosperity in Afflictions

Today God Is First

Volume 1 by Os Hillman

Thursday, November 13 2008

"The second son he named Ephraim and said, 'It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.'" Genesis 41:52


When Joseph was elevated to rule over the Egyptian kingdom, he revealed some profound truths gained from the experiences of his years of adversity. He named his first son, Manasseh for, he said, "God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household" (Gen. 41:51b). His second son was named Ephraim because, "God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."

Whenever God takes us through the land of affliction, He will do two things through that affliction: 1) He will bring such healing that we will be able to forget the pain, and 2) He will make us fruitful from the painful experiences.

God does not waste our afflictions if we allow Him the freedom to complete the work in us. His desire is to create virtue that remains during the times of testing so that He can bring us into the place of fruitfulness in the very area of our testing. He has never promised to keep us from entering the valleys of testing, but He has promised to make us fruitful in them. He is the God who turns the Valley of Achor (trouble) into a door of hope (see Hos. 2:15).

If you are in the valley of affliction, now is the time to press into Him. When the time comes to bring you out of this valley, He will heal your memories and bring fruit from this very time.