God desires that we always bless and extol the Lord. The Lord is good. We who have been Christians for a period of time have found that the Lord indeed is good.

Christians suffer just as much as other people. But if we keep before the Lord constantly we find that the suffering does us good. It knocks the sin and self-seeking out of us if we take it right and don't start complaining and blaming people.

I would be a different person today if it were not for a multitude of tribulations. How about you? Would you like to be the same kind of person you were thirty years ago? I sure wouldn't!

"Life is not a bowl of cherries," a fifth-grader I was teaching told me once. Her parents were going through a divorce. Poor thing! But she spoke the truth and we all know it. Unless we are one of these people with no principles (they are multiplying like flies in our day) we have to pay our bills and act responsibly toward those who have been entrusted to us.

Life has a lot of good times and a lot of hard knocks. Yet we find that God is good. For those who walk with God there are flowers to be picked in every valley.

We are to praise God continually. Sometimes this is easy, like in church. But at other times when we are facing a major crisis it is hard to praise the Lord. We feel more like going home and hiding under the bed.

When we have to look up to see the bottom, when our head feels like a rotten melon, when we are scared witless because we see disaster ahead, then is the time to praise the Lord. The Lord likes for everyone to praise Him for His love and goodness. But when we are in a dark valley and make ourselves look up in praise and worship, then the Lord regards that highly. It is an act of majesty on the part of one of His sons.

We will not always be at the bottom of the barrel. That dark place you are in now is not a grave, it is a tunnel. Don't quit. God is just as good as He was when you first accepted the Lord.

At one time you had the world by the tail on a downhill pull and were singing the happy choruses of Zion. Now you are wondering if there even is a God.

I've been there! What you sang and what you testified are still true. I understand that since then you have entered a black pit of problems and confusion. How could God let this happen?

Believe it or not, this is working for your good! Day unto day is filled with words but it is at night, when you are following the fire, that you gain the knowledge of the Holy.

Whatever you do, don't give up on God. Get on the roller coaster. Fasten your seat belt. You are in for the ride of your life.

When you get to the end the assistant will help you out of the car. Then you will stand up and say, "It wasn't so bad after all! I think I'll just carry my cross for one more day before I put it away for eternity."