"HOPE OUTLASTS TROUBLE"

        "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while 

          You may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."

                                           1Peter 1:6

        There was a time when the prophet Elijah was so over whelmed by the difficulties of his work that he simply gave up and prayed to die. It is a feeling many since Elijah's day have shared. Life is indeed difficult. At times it maybe seem unbearable. For many suicide seems the only answer, the easy way out.

          "To end it all. To be rid of my suffering. To put my treatments behind me." How simple it all seems.

          A man once said, "when you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God." Yes, it's not easy to lie in a hospital bed day after day. Nor is it fun to come home when somebody in the family believes the only answer to life comes out of a bottle. But even these problems are not too big for God. If you give up on them, if you give up on life, you are really giving up on God.

         How can you give up on God when he brought you into life? How can you give up on God when he gave his one and only Son to be your Savior? How can you give up on God when he has been with you with his word on the pages of the Bible?

         Do not give up on him who has promised, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." God will not give up on you.

         We simply need to remember that every problem in life is only temporary. We can outlast it. God may well bring our difficulties to a close with the new dawn. In this we can greatly rejoice. But what of the person who has been told his illness is terminal? How can we call that temporary? If we will just look to the garden where a man by the name of Joseph of Arimathea owned a burial site, we will note thag the grave previously occupied now stands empty. Christ has conquered death. And we now have the hope of life in heaven. In christ we can outlast any problem, even death.

          When Elijah prayed that God would let him die, God instead patiently listened to his troubles and then renewed his hope in the promises of the Lord. God is listening to you. Talk to him in prayer. Listen to him through his Word.  And then conquer each day with hope in a God who truly cares for you.