What Do You Mean When You Say "My God?"

"But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, thou art my God" Psalm 31:14

For David, "My God" meant one great enough to cover his entire life. For Paul, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

I - God Will Never Leave Us - Troubles will still come our way, but God will supply the strength and resources we need (Philippians 4:19). Christianity is not how to escape from life difficulty but how to face it. Nothing can happen to us that God cannot handle. "I have not seen the righteous forsaken." (Psalm 37:25).

II - God Will Never Allow Anybody To Break His Rules - "The law of the Lord is perfect" (Psalm 19:7). The law of gravitation has not yet been repealed. If man breaks God's law, trials will follow because men destroyed the rules of God. Sometimes, we don't want to be bound by the laws of God. Instead of living up to God, we reduce God to the level of our living. We push Him aside and make our own laws and choose our own paths. But God is like a loving father. God keeps control over us though we break His rules. To every sorrow there is a reason. There is no education like adversary. "In studying, we know the word of God; in suffering we know the God of the word."

In agriculture, "pruning is not pleasant, but it is productive." In our lives, God punishes us of many things. A believer can never be the same after passing through suffering. This is the reason why we have problems. God afflicts us purposely. There is no such thing as "good weather" and "bad weather". There are just different kinds of good weather. We need sunshine as well as rain! According to an Arabic proverb: "All sunshine and no rain makes a desert." God will never permit any trouble to come unless he has something better for us. God afflicts us compassionately. "The Lord pitieth His children" (Psalm 103:13). Pain and suffering are not necessarily signs of God's anger; they may exactly be the opposite. "The Lord separates the sin that He hates from the sinner whom He loves." "Life is not a series of accidents, it is a series of appointments." Appointments created by God! "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." God turns MESS to MESSAGE, TEST to TESTIMONY, TRIALS to TRIUMPH, VICTIM to VICTORY. God will always hold our hand.

(From Rev. Pastor Teofilito A. Rufon's Sunday Worship Messages at Odiongan Baptist Church Inc.)