Do you ever feel that when it comes to life you take one step forward and two steps back – or am I in this all by myself?

You get your budget figured out and the fuel prices shoot up. You get the thing paid for and the engine blows up. Everything else is fine, but your health breaks down. I mean, there’s no end to it.

I used to wonder how God deals with the alfalfa farmer on the south side of the road who prays for dry weather so he can cut, and the wheat farmer on the north side of the road who prays for rain so his crop will mature. The farmer hopes there won’t be blight in his crop and the crop duster wouldn’t mind if there was a little so he’d have some work. And all the while God sits on His throne and wonders when in the world people are going to figure out that He can take care of everybody.

What seems like loss to us is simply an opportunity for God to demonstrate his power in our behalf.

At the end of the day it was despair for the disciples of Jesus. Christ was dead. Their hopes were shattered and their dreams turned to ashes. But God was still on the throne. If on Friday someone had tried to explain to them the resurrection on Sunday it would have been beyond their comprehension. So, my friend, God is still there for you, too.

For “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31.

Rod Bieber is the pastor of Seventh-day Adventist Church.