Troubles of many kinds are all around us. We are tempted to be afraid about financial problems, sickness, our families or the future. Now is a very good time to learn things that Jesus taught us.      Jesus explained to His disciples the He was going to leave them. He knew they would be confused, so to strengthen their faith He told them that He would still be with them even though they could not see Him. He said it was necessary for Him to go. Necessary? How could that be? They needed Him. They had forsaken everything to follow Him. What would become of them and everyone else who had believed in Him, if He left them?
     What will happen to us if everything in the world becomes much more difficult? To know the answers we can consider what happened to Jesus’ disciples. Just as He had told them, they did have difficult lives after Jesus left, but they also had such amazing experiences that we can hardly imagine the joy they had. Consider having the Spirit of Jesus working through you so powerfully that you could heal people who could not walk.
      After Peter had healed the lame man everyone stood there awed by the wonderful thing that had happened. Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. "Men of Israel," he said, "what is so surprising about this? And why look at us as though we by our own power and godliness had made this man walk? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of all our ancestors who has brought glory to His servant Jesus by doing this (Acts 3:11-12 TLB).
      If you caused sick people to be healed, others might hate you because you didn’t heal them. They might find ways to have you sent to prison. Or they might smash the doors of your home and carry you and your family into the streets where they would stone you until you appeared to be dead. If it were God’s will you would stand up and walk away! But what if they killed you? Jesus is still able to have someone tell you to stand up and walk. Early Christians had no power that we do not have! God did through them whatever He wanted to be done. And He will do through us whatever He wants done.

     What a way to live! We are in the same world with the same Jesus and with His Holy Spirit living in us. Jesus will do in us whatever needs to be done. What He asks of us is that we learn to trust Him to meet all of our needs, now and in the future.
      Will difficult times come for you and me? We need to consider II Timothy 3:1 (TLB): You may as well know this too, Timothy, that in the last days it is going to be very difficult to be a Christian.
      What if we are tempted to doubt, be afraid and worry that maybe we aren’t good enough or strong enough to meet the challenge of the coming days. Well, no one is good enough or strong enough! The strength we have is the same strength that Paul experienced in II Corinthians 12:10 and His Holy Spirit can work in us the same as He worked in the disciples. His followers were no better or stronger than we are! God will meet our needs, whatever they may be, at the right time and in His perfect way. Our responsibility is to look up, rejoice and be glad.
      We may think our own problems are large but God promises to take everything, no matter what it may be, and force it to become a blessing to us. Jesus considered a mountain to be no more difficult to remove than a grain of sand! He was not concerned that men would kill Him and He was sure that God would take care of everyone who trusted in Him.
      Current world conditions offer us a chance to grow in faith. Whatever happens in our futures there will be new opportunities for us to see what God will do. To be ready for the “bad things” that seem to be on the horizon, we now have time to learn how to rejoice over the smaller things that happen to us. Learn, learn, and learn. Many times every day we can learn something new about how to: Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice! (Phil. 4:4 TLB).

 by Mary Carothers

the throne, all they could think about was their own feelings of being left out. How like all of us! We get our feelings hurt. We’re jealous because someone else got all the attention. We think we deserve more credit than we are getting. We’re angry because we are ignored.
     What the men of Israel should have done, and what we need to do is get our focus off ourselves and on someone else. They should have rejoiced that their king was back. We, on the other hand, need to focus on Jesus and all that He has done for us. When we think about Jesus, we aren’t putting all our attention on ourselves. Most of us have been self centered all our lives. It’s time now to learn to be Christ centered in all we think, feel and do.
     Yes, we have trials in this life. We all do. But let’s remember the tribulations of this world are temporary. Our lives here are temporary. Our real home, our eternal home, is with the Lord in Heaven. Let’s grow in Christ, mature as Christians, and bring glory to Him.