An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different. If you are a child of God, there certainly will be troubles to face. Jesus says not to be surprised when they come: “In this world you will have trouble.” But he also says that troubles are no match for him: “Take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Sometimes people who never wanted to complain or go on about their troubles before they were saved become frail in the face of trouble afterward. This happens because they had the wrong idea of what salvation meant. They thought it meant that God would allow them to triumph easily over all adversity. But God does not give us overcoming life; he gives us life as we overcome.
Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot—not unless you also accept the strain. The strain is the strength. Where there is no strain, there is no strength.
Overcome your timidity. Take the step God is telling you to take, and he will nourish you: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7). If you push yourself to your physical limits, you will become exhausted, but if you push yourself spiritually, you will get more strength. God never gives strength for tomorrow or for the next hour, only for the strain of the minute.
Face your troubles with courage and gladness, remembering that you have nothing to fear. The saint is filled with hilarity when crushed by difficulties, because the situation is so ludicrously impossible to anyone but God. “If you say, ‘The Lord is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you” (Psalm 91:9–10). No plague can come near the place where you are at one with God.
