John the Baptist had doubted, and Jesus told him to remember what he knew in order to continue to trust during hard circumstances.

Jesus goes on to say, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”(Matthew 11:6)

Spurgeon commented, “Blessed is he who can be left in prison, can be silenced in his testimony, can seem to be deserted of his Lord, and yet can shut out every doubt. John speedily regained this blessedness, and fully recovered his serenity.”

In this life, even for those who love the Lord, doubts will assail us and often a silent battle will rage in our minds. It is specifically then that we must remember what we know and hold tight to truth.

We are blessed when we are not offended because of Jesus, when we keep on, even when it is our faith that brings about our trial.

John the Baptist would never have been in prison if he had not preached about the Messiah. And some of us would not be criticized, ostracized, and more, if we would simply keep our faith to ourselves.

And when we face difficulties because of our faith it’s easy to allow the enemy to lie to us that God should have kept us and those we love from the trouble and pain.

Aren’t we the apple of His eye? Aren’t we supposed to be covered under the shelter of His wing? Should harm come to us?

The Apostle Paul surely knew how this felt as he had pleaded with God to remove a painful thing in his life

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”(2 Cor 12:8-10)

And it is there, when we are weak, that we can remember, God is at work in our trouble and pain. He is strong and often bringing something much bigger than we know.

Oh friend, let’s hold on! Let’s keep our eye on the prize!! God’s been faithful before! He won’t leave us now.

readMatthew

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