We are living in difficult and dark times for so many people. If you are one of them, I want you to realize that you are not alone. Maybe God wants to use you to encourage someone else battling the darkness. Hard times will come and the darkness will find each one of us. At some point in life, we all will face some kind of pit. It may be a pit that we have dug with our own hands of wrong choices or it could be a pit that has been uniquely designed for us by the enemy.
“I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” ~ Psalm 40:1-3
What can we do to find hope in the midst of the darkness? We have several choices about how to deal with the pain and darkness in life. We can become bitter and blame God for the pain or we can give up and wallow in the mire and mud of that slimy pit. Some of you maybe guilty of plastering a smile on your face, gritting your teeth and denying that the pit even exists. However, the choice we should make is to trust God, knowing He will deliver us in and from the pit.
God’s grace turns defeat into victory, tragedy into triumph and weakness into strength by providing real power over circumstances. People without Christ can only muster up enough courage and human strength to get through a trial. God will not only enable us to survive the hard times, He wants us to thrive in and because of them. Paul used his pain and chose to make that pit work for him – and God’s power was unleashed in Paul’s life.
Joy is not an earthly treasure but a heavenly gift from our loving Father who is committed to the joy of His children. Some of the most joyful people I know have suffered the most because they have learned not to live on explanations but on promises – the promises of God.
Jesus wants to give us a life of joy, pits and all. We need to remember that joy is the deeply-rooted confidence that God is in control and that our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outer circumstances. We can find joy in the pit.
A Safe Harbor is Jesus 
Thank you!
Nicely done on an important subject.
May I add to it?
Sense the FALL of Adam and Eve, humanity ought to expect suffering as a normal condition of a sin-filled world: READ please Genesis chapter 3 {its a short chapter]
But God IS a Loving and Merciful God: Suffering exist for one of TWO reasons:
1. In order to Glorify God who with cases or [more often] just permits suffering to exist.. God is Glorified just by making suffering and “grace-filled possibility.”
2. When God chooses suffering for us mankind is given two choices:
a. To accept it and offer it up either for ourselves or others in which case We Merit grace AND God is Glorified.
b. We choose to complain, and complain about it which case ,man rejects an opportunity to gain grace; BUT God is still glorified for having given us the opportunity.
God Bless you my friend,
Patrick
LikeLike