As I read these, I thought whatever mankind does to destroy those who carry the word, either by voice or by print. His Word will prevail. Nothing can stop His Word from going where He wants it to go. If I can remain faithful, endure any hardships even, if it means my death, I am promised eternal life. This is an not empty promise.

I can get through them, try to learn from them, and go on. That's life, guaranteed to have ups, downs, and plenty of enduring. After it is all weighed and measures, what did I gain by it all, to take with me in death, if I do not have the Father? Nothing but a fearful judgement to look forward to. John 5:28-29

In walking with our Father, I have precious promises to go with the test, trials, and times I just having stood, stand on faith, and confidence good will come from it.

I can stand on the promise nothing will be harder than I can endure, or He will make a way out for me. Many times I prayed for a testing time to be over, it was to much, I just could not endure it any longer, then it not stop but go on. Then when it ended I looked back, and saw how much more I could endure than I thought. I had stretched, stretched and stretched more than I ever knew I could. I was elated that I didn't give up, and what I learned was so precious. I just praised our Father that He didn't stop it when I asked Him to. What a wonderful spiritual blessing I would have missed out on. What I went through seemed to fade in the light of what He had to teach me.

I love Ps. 139: David talks about how we are known inside and out. I see David calling out in crying in despair one minute, then the next telling our Father He knows it will all be ok. In all things that happens good will come from it. It really doesn't matter how bleak things are, how we wonder how in the world can anything good come from something we are going through, we have a promise it will. Most times it is a spiritual lesson we could not have learned as well in any other setting.

Many times when something was going on in my life, and it hurt so bad, it was overwhelming, I was afraid to cry. I had His promise it would not be to hard, and in my mind to cry was to say it was to hard. I had poured out my heart to my Father that I wanted to learn what ever it was He was trying to teach me, I didn't want to loose that, but it hurt so bad, and I wanted to cry, but to cry was being soft and not taking it, but complaining it was to hard in my mind.

One day He showed me that it was not wrong to cry over a hurt, hardship, testing or trial. It was the way I cried. A cry of totally surrender, a cry of weariness, and being tired was not saying it was to hard. Crying was human a emotion that helped one cope. Most times it was when I got to the point of crying, was when the words came of surrendering it all to the Father instead of trying to endure on my own, to fix it on my own. Then soon it truly was over.

He knows me, and He is not out to break me with a test. In it I get to know me sometimes, and I am shocked to see I am not as strong in an area as I thought I was. It gives me a chance to work on it. He wants to use these times to strengthen me, to bring me closer to Him.

He knows the end, just exactly how it can end, how it will turn out, according to His purpose if I do not give up. I have to trust Him to do the driving so to speak, and to get me to that destination, and arrive in the condition He wants me to arrive in.

Satan can shake his fist at us, reach out to grab us, scare us, but he can not touch us unless our Father allows it, just like in the case of Job. I can let him get to me if I doubt, then he will cause me to doubt all the promises that the Father gave me.

Endurance, dedication has a price & what it buys is priceless. Eternal life with our Father and His Son.

© Mary's Treasures of Jott'em Downs Mary Lois Bierman Contact marys_treasures@yahoo.com to use. I would love to hear from you if you are blessed by any MT articles or stories.