In the Day of Adversity
By Marsha Iddings
Ecclesiastes 7:14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, But in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, So that man can find out nothing that will come after him. (NKJV)
I was cleaning up my room and sorting through papers one day when I came across a piece of paper with two verses printed on it. One was the verse above and the other was Isaiah 30:20-21.
And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. (NKJV)
Since I have been dealing with chronic tendonitis, these verses came as great encouragement to me. I have had much time to consider and learn from God's Word and other Christian writers as I spend more time resting. My teachers are not in a corner when God gives me the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. John Wesley comments on the Ecclesiastes verse by saying that God has appointed both prosperity and adversity so "That-No man might be able to foresee, what shall befal him afterwards; and therefore might live in a constant dependence upon God, and neither despair in trouble, nor be secure or presumptuous in prosperity."
How easy it is when everything is going right for us to become secure and presumptuous in prosperity! How easy it is when I am feeling great and am pain-free to get so busy that I am depending on my own strength instead of being in constant dependence on Him! God gives me pain-free days and days filled with pain so that I never know what a day will be like and I must learn to be in constant dependence on Him. Depending on Him is the best place to be. It's the place where the "peace that passes understanding" guards our hearts. (Philippians 4:6-7) Are you in that place?
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