God & Trials

Psalm 31:21-24

 ²¹ Praise be to the LORD, 

   for he showed me the wonders of his love
   when I was in a city under siege.
²² In my alarm I said,
   “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
   when I called to you for help.

 ²³ Love the LORD, all his faithful people!
   The LORD preserves those who are true to him,
   but the proud he pays back in full.
²⁴ Be strong and take heart,
   all you who hope in the LORD.

There is real beauty in this passage of Scripture. So often we find ourselves in these situations where God seems absent. A bad grade, a college rejection letter, a bad day at work, being laid off, debt piling up. We may feel like these high walls are surrounding us and threaten our lives on a constant basis. 

Most of us with any amount of real-world experience can say that, on the other end of a trail, you can expect to find a lesson. Going through hardships is a part of life (a bigger one for some than for others), and when the hardship is over and done with, we come out wiser on the other side. 

I see the writer of this Psalm confessing this to his readers; he was fearful at the time, and rejoiced as God saved him. Before the saving however, we see that God was observing the writer while he was trapped in a sieged city. God let him get to that point. The writer believed he was alone. But the writer begs us to learn from his life lesson: God is not gone just because he is allowing you to experience hardship. We are stubborn creatures as humans, and true to form, sometimes the only way we can truly learn a lesson is to suffer. Like a child and a hot stove; a parent could say to the child over and over to stay away from it, but sometimes the child can't learn until it burns its hand. 

What encouragement the writer gives us in verses 23-24! He shows us how wise it is to trust in the Lord and how foolish it is to trust in our own abilities. When we are struggling, we tend to rely on ourselves more than anyone or anything else. This shows that trusting in God when those walls are rising high around you is truly the wisest thing we can do as His people. 

As you finish this week with your family, may God give you the strength and foresight to see that, on the other side of whatever trial you may be experiencing, wisdom waits for you. God is not gone, He is lovingly watching you with Father's eyes. Trust in His grace and plan.

Reflection Quests:

1. What was the last trial that you felt alone in?
2. How did God end up being present in that trial?
3. How does this passage relate to your current state in life?
4. How has God taught you things through trials?
5. Why is it difficult to rely on God sometimes?
6. What can we do to remind ourselves to rely on God in the midst of trials?
7. Pray together that God would be at the center of your lives as a family, and that He would be who you rely on daily.