“Call upon me in the day of trouble;
     I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Psalm 50:15

Here our Lord describes the lives of faithful believers.  Life has many misfortunes.  It’s as if the Lord plays a game with us, and through struggle and pain, tells us to do something that He knows we are too weak to do or stand up against.  Fathers may do this with their children, ask them to do something impossible to do and when the child struggles, the father steps in to lend a helping hand.  In this way the child learns to trust and rely on his father and love his father.

Our Heavenly Father brings us up in the same way.  We should never doubt His fatherly love and good intentions.  God gladly reaches down and helps us, and He praises us for our efforts, even if we come up short and prove to need His help.  Even in our weakness God is strong, and He is pleased with us.  In this way, we learn to trust Him, lean on Him and obey Him.  And as His beloved children, we give Him all the glory in both good and ill because without Him we would be lost.

Heavenly Father, teach me to trust in You in times of joy and in times of struggle, for You live and reign with the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.