The writer of Hebrews must have experienced real trouble because throughout his writing, he encourages other believers to not give up. In chapter 12, he brings his point home as he focuses of God's reason for allowing such difficulty to happen. Bottom line: everything we experience beyond our ability to deal with it causes us to seek God's help. And when it's finished, we find we are better for it. Scripture calls it discipline and every child of God has experienced it whether they recongized it at the time or not.

In the Old Testament, David seemed to be the most visible recipient of God's discipline. The reason must be his overwhelming tendency to get in trouble. In the 22nd chapter of 2 Samuel, David prays and what he prays is a theme repeated over and over in the Psalms. That''s why I prefer to call Psalms a prayer journal more than poetry. In virtually every chapter of Psalms, we read a man's tesimony of how God saved him for the jaws of trouble and what he's learned as a result of going through it.

That's what discipline does, you know? We get in trouble, experience problems and learn to depend on God to get us through. David often said his life was preserved. I agree for I think there has been more than one time when my life would have been snuffed out had not angels interceded at God's command and pulled me out. If you stop and think about it, you're probably no different.

Scripture tells us to view disicpline as something reserved for family and that should be encouraging to us. Next we are to endure discipline, meaning not every problem goes away as quickly as it arrived. We must allow it to run its course and view it as good, although I admit that's not my immediate response.

Finally, we should not complain about trouble, but allow God to soothe our pain while we look to Him to teach us a valuable lesson. The admonition to "make level paths for your feet" in verse 13 tells me that I should not run from trouble but face it and look around to see what God is doing. Don't take radical turns as a result of trouble but realize the answer to my prayer might be in the midst of the storm and not on dry ground where its appears safe from the storm.

1. Pray Through the Word - 365 devotionals on the subject of prayer by James R. Green (2Sa 22; {Ps138;
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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