When We Struggle to be Thankful...Continued from page 1

Maturity: When you have difficulty, you learn more during those times than you learn in the good times. Someone wrote these words: "I walked a mile with pleasure, she chattered all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say. I walked a mile with sorrow, and not a word said she…but oh the things I learned from sorrow, when sorrow walked with me." We learn so much more in times of sorrow than times of joy. Psalm 119:71 says, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes." If affliction causes me to learn, then I've got to thank God for it. If affliction causes you to be like Jesus, and you're made mature through these things, then you can thank God for it.

Patience: When bad things happen to you, inexplicable things, could it be that God is just simply working patience in you? All of us need to learn the Christian grace of patience. Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." James 1:4 says, "Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." You and I need to learn patience. The word "patience" in this verse is a Greek word that means to bear up under suffering and pain. And so, if God is teaching us patience, and it is a Christian virtue, should we not thank God when we're enduring trials?

Ministry: Things that happen to you may happen to you to enable you to minister to other people. Second Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, but the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." God gives us comfort in order for us to comfort somebody else. Now, God can't comfort you unless you need it, and you can't need comfort unless you have trouble. Give God thanks that you can comfort someone else because of trouble.

Glory: When we suffer and yet keep praising God, it gives God glory. Now, I like for God to deliver me when I'm in trouble. It's one thing to be delivered and praise God for it; it's another thing to be in a fiery furnace and not be delivered and praise God for it. And I tell you, that takes more faith and gives God more glory. And if God is being glorified in my life, even though I may be persecuted, can I not thank God that He is being glorified in my life, even though I don't feel thankful?

Mystery: I've mentioned many things, but these may not satisfy you. You may not know and you may not understand. But one thing we can understand: God is a sovereign God, and bigger than any of us. Isaiah 55 tells us that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that His ways are higher than our ways. Second Corinthians 5:7 says: "we walk by faith, not by sight…" There are times when we say, "God, You owe me an explanation." And it's all right to ask for one, but not to doubt God's wisdom, love or goodness. If God loved you enough to send His Son to die for you on the cross, then you never have to doubt His love again.

Real faith is not receiving from God what we want, but it is accepting from God what He gives. You may never in this world figure it out, but you know that God is sovereign and someone wisely said, "Where we cannot trace His hand, we can trust His heart." He is good and faithful, and so thank Him and praise Him.

 Most important to Dr. Rogers have been the tens and thousands of believers who have had their faith strengthened and thousands of others who have for the first time entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Dr. Rogers passed away on November 15, 2005.