Are you discouraged? Do you have troubles pressing in on you? Are some of your troubles of such a nature that you can see no possible way out?
God is still your Father, and God wants you to learn how to remember in the dark what you knew in the light. God wants you to trust Him in the midst of discouragement. That is how He grows His saints—through difficulties and trials. As one Puritan put it, God had one Son without sin, but He had no sons without adversities.
Troubles come in various ways, and under differing circumstances. The envelopes that contain your troubling news are all different sizes and colors. But the seal on the envelope is always the same—it is from the Lord. Look at it. Examine the seal before you panic over the letter.
While you are in trouble, God gives you lesser deliverances to give you confidence that a greater deliverance is coming. Rise up, stepping on the kindnesses He shows you in the midst of your difficulties.
But you may wonder what lesser deliverance I could be talking about . . . you still have that debt, your child is still wayward, your friendship is still being threatened . . . what lesser deliverance? What token do you have that God is with you, and that He will in fact deliver you?
What token? Here—it is the broken body of Jesus (broken for you) and the shed blood of Jesus (shed for you). The only problem with this image is that of calling this a “lesser” deliverance. Call it an earlier deliverance, and trust Him for the final deliverance. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.