Grace For Trials

[Walter and Deborah]

Sunday 8-14-22 1st. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Av 15 5782 55th. Summer Day

Grace for Trials

Read: Deuteronomy 31:1–8 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 89–90; Romans 14
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[The Lord] will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Deuteronomy 31:8

Annie Johnson Flint was crippled by severe arthritis just a few years after high school. She never walked again and relied on others to help care for her needs. Because of her poetry and hymns, she received many visitors, including a deaconess who felt discouraged about her own ministry.

When the visitor returned home, she wrote to Annie, wondering why God allowed such hard things in her life.

In response, Annie sent a poem: “God hath not promised skies always blue, / flower-strewn pathways all our lives through. . . .” She knew from experience that suffering often occurred, but that God would never abandon those He loves.

Instead, He promised to give “grace for the trials, help from above, / unfailing sympathy, undying love.” You may recognize that poem as the hymn “What God Hath Promised.”

Moses also suffered and faced strife, but He knew God’s presence was with him. When he passed his leadership of the Israelites to Joshua, he told the younger man to be strong and courageous, because “the Lord your God goes with you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

Moses, knowing that the people of Israel would face formidable enemies as they entered and took the promised land, said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (v. 8).

Disciples of Christ will face hardship, but we have God’s Spirit to encourage us. He’ll never leave us.

When you endure trials, how do you trust in God? How could you share your stories of His faithfulness with others?

Heavenly Father, when I’m feeling discouraged and distressed, please remind me through Your Spirit that You’ll never leave me.

INSIGHT
As the Israelites were preparing to enter the promised land, Moses wouldn’t be leading them (Deuteronomy 31:2–3). Why? At Meribah, when God told him to speak to a rock so that water would pour from it, Moses disobeyed by striking the rock instead (Numbers 20).

The result was the same, but the problem was Moses was so angry at the bickering people that he made it appear that he and Aaron were responsible for bringing water from the rock. As he struck the rock, he declared: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (v. 10).

Because Moses “did not trust in [God] enough to honor [Him] as holy in the sight of the Israelites” (v. 12), he wasn’t allowed to enter the promised land.

By Amy Boucher Pye|August 14th, 2022

Suffering And Tragedy Deuteronomy Thirty One:1-8

1 And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel.

2 And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the Lord hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.

3 The Lord thy God, he will go over before thee, and he will destroy these nations from before thee, and thou shalt possess them: and Joshua, he shall go over before thee, as the Lord hath said.

4 And the Lord shall do unto them as he did to Sihon and to Og, kings of the Amorites, and unto the land of them, whom he destroyed.

5 And the Lord shall give them up before your face, that ye may do unto them according unto all the commandments which I have commanded you.

6 Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

7 And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.

8 And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.

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Love, Walter and Debbie