HARD PLACES

One day, a friend came to me, crying desperately, saying that her present situation was more than she could endure. She had been put in a hard place and wanted an immediate way of escape. Are you in a hard place today? Are you asking yourself, as my friend did, what possible glory God could derive from such a devastating experience? Let me encourage you with the answer I gave my friend. I know it was a word from the Lord because it set her free and gave her the peace she was lacking. I encourage you to use these words as a key to healing in your own hard place. I told my friend, “Just because it’s a hard place, don’t be so sure that God didn’t allow you there for a purpose. You cannot see God’s whole plan now, but be sure that He has a beautiful purpose to unfold. You may not know what He is preparing you for, but you dare not miss it.” Think about how dark a mine is – as dark as the hard place you are now in—yet, it has the capacity to produce the most brilliant of gems. Just like the mining process, our hardest trials can produce our dearest treasures.”...