His Blessed Work

 "Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses, and He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. OH THAT MEN WOULD PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS GOODNESS, AND FOR HIS WONDERFUL WORKS TO THE CHILDREN OF MEN!" Psalm 107:5-8.

This wonderful Psalm repeats the above pattern four times. Do we get it? The whole point of our trial is that we have the opportunity to call out to God in desperation. And when we do, He delivers us, and shows us the right way. Is this not a summary of the cross, by which God leads us, corrects us, and makes sure we are on the right path? 

Of course, most often we see our trials quite the opposite way. We do not, as James writes to us, "consider it all a joy". Apart from the revelation of what God is doing, we may think that God has abandoned us, that He just doesn't care about our pain. Nothing, of course, could be farther from the truth. Here is an opportunity to set back the worldly powers that oppress us. There is a new song out that says, "I'm going to praise Him in the midst of the storm". When we do, our enemies must fall back, for the LORD dwells in the midst of our praises. 

So brothers and sisters, we ought pray not that our cross would be removed, but rather for revelation. We do not live only by natural bread, but by every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God! We simply cannot understand our testings any other way. By faith we know that "this present tribulation is preparing for us an eternal weight of Glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17. Oh, we see it! Praise God we see it! Our only question, writes Witness Lee, is "How much of us was lost, and how much of Christ was gained" in this tribulation. This is the weight of Glory we are gaining. We are now more ready for residence in the Eternal City of God. Our praises will ring out like the pilgrims in the Psalms of Ascents: "I was glad when they said unto me, 'Let us go into the house of the LORD'".