Discover Grace in the Trial

“Put Me to the test in this” — Malachi 3:10.

We once heard a simple, elderly Black man say something we have never forgotten: “When God tests you, it is a good time for you to test His faithfulness. Put His promises to the proof, and claim from Him as much as your trials have made necessary.”

There are two ways of coming out of a trial. One is simply to try to get rid of it and be thankful when it is over. The other is to see the trial as God’s challenge to claim a greater blessing than any we have received before. We can welcome it with joy as an opportunity to receive a greater measure of divine grace.

Then even the adversary becomes a helper, and the things that seemed to oppose us turn out to advance our progress. Surely this is what it means to be more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Blessed Rose of Sharon,
breathe upon our hearts.
Fill us with Your fragrance;
keep us in Your likeness.
Then Your life will make us
holy and complete,
triumphant through Your grace,
filled with Your sweetness.