Students In The School Of Adversity

Proverb 24:10 –

“If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength in small”

Let us consider the case of Daniel in the Bible. God has the power to prevent Daniel from being thrown into the lion’s den. While they were planning it, he was watching them. He could have asked them to fall down and die but He kept quite. When Daniel’s enemies went to report him to the king and when they arrested him, God saw them and did not say they should not arrest him. While they took him to the lions’ den. He was there. God was not sleeping when they were casting Daniel into the lion’s den. The question is, if you were the one thrown inside that lion’s den, would you come out alive like Daniel? Somebody tried it in Ibadan, the south west of Nigeria. He decided to jump into the den of lions at the zoological garden. It was said that when he jumped in, the lions first of all ran away and later came back and ate him up. Nobody could deliver him.

The People who threw Daniel of the Bible into that den forgot certain things they forgot that it was God who created the lions. They forgot that God has supreme power. They forgot that the Son of God himself is called the Lion of Judah. They forgot that Daniel was a son of that Lion of Judah and that therefore lion cannot eat lion, as he was the son of a greater lion. The God of Daniel did not come late and He will not come late for you.

What did Daniel do in the lion’s den? He prayed. Certain facts about Daniel were not clear to the enemy. That is why it is a good payer point when you say, “Let my life continually confuse my enemy, in the name of Jesus “The men who threw Daniel into the den ended up being eaten. So, the sword taken up against Daniel by his enemies turned against them. When they were planning to destroy Daniel, they did not know that they were planning for their own destruction. So, God permits our enemy to try us, so that they can know that He is great. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones, so that none of them is broken. Therefore, it is very dangerous to give up your services to the Lord or to give up in the face of adversity. It is like taking three steps forward and four steps backwards. The Bible says that the hair on our head is numbered. If the Lord says that he knows the number of the hair on your head, how about your life as a person. Remember that the widow of Zarephats was at the end of the road when Elijah came to her rescue. So, there is no situation that you are going through now that is hopeless. I know that very soon, the people who are looking down on you will begin to look up to you.

Let us look at the Israelites at the Red sea. Why did God wait until the Egyptians were very close to them before He intervened? God comes when things look hopeless. When the doctors throw up their hands in despair and the lawyers say it is a hopeless case, it is then the Almighty starts working. So, we must learn the principle of stubborn prayers and the principle of shameless prayers. Perhaps, as you are reading this bulletin you are already having the symptoms of defeat and discouragement, do not give up. Ecclesiastes 7:14,

“ in the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider, God also hath set the one over against the other to the end that man should find nothing after him”

So, in the day of adversity, consider and know that God is still in control just as when you were joyful in prosperity. That is why they say that there is no education like adversity. The psalmist “Before l was afflicted, I have gone astray but now my eyes have found thy law” Watch a man or woman in the time of adversity and you can tell what kind of person he or she is. There are many students in the school of adversity.

WHO ARE THE FAILURES IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY?

1.They are people who get confused by adversity.

2. They are people who become bitter because of problems. Bitterness enters into their lives bitterness against parents against anybody.

A sister came for an interview but could not answer any of our questions. She looked confused. I tried to make her calm down. I said, “My sister, calm down. Think before you say you don’t know” Then l asked her a very simple question “What is your name? At least you know your name” instead of answering my question she said well, this is all the fault of my Stepmother. I did not want to study microbiology. My stepmother convinced my daddy to make me study microbiology. Now you can see” Anybody who has bitterness inside is a failure in the school of adversity, if you have bitterness and you are praying, sorry you are wasting your time.