Prepare, Pray, Provide

We have been made right in God’s sight because of our faith in HIM.  Yet, having faith in God during the good times in our lives is much easier than having faith during the bad times.  How do we ensure that we are able to be faithful to God during both the good and the bad times?  What can we do to make sure that we have that ultimate peace with God that is only made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ?

1.       Prepare yourself for both the good and the bad times.  Recognize that they will come.  Acknowledge that it will be difficult at times.  Gather tools (favorite bible verses, songs, or recorded sermons, bible dictionary, commentary, journal, etc) and start now using these tools to help you study and grow stronger so that you will have something in place already so that when the bad times come you will be better able to deal with them

2.       Pray for strength, pray for faith, pray especially through the preparation stage, and ask God to help give you the peace that can only be given to you through Jesus Christ

3.       Provide help to others who might be suffering.  It may help you with your own needs.  God often shows us how to work through our own problems when we help others.

 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith^[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we^[c] rejoice^[d] in hope of the glory of God. ³Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. -Romans 5:1-5