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Key Bible Verse: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. (Isaiah 43:2a). Bonus Reading: Isaiah 50:4-11

One day trouble entered the land of the bivalves. A tiny grain of sand—sharp and painful—intruded into one oyster's shell.

The oyster might have protested, "If there is a God of justice and love, why should this be permitted?" The oyster might have harbored resentment and bitterness or entertained self-pity.

Or the oyster might have tried to deny reality. It might have said, "Pain is an error of the mind. I'll dismiss it by projecting my thoughts on a high, positive level." Or the oyster might be stoic: "Though I'm bleeding and sore, I'll never surrender."

Instead, the oyster begins patiently to deposit upon the quartz a milky substance, making out of the grain of sand that for which divers are willing to risk their lives—a pearl, a thing of wondrous beauty wrapped around trouble.

It's more than a figure of speech to say that we enter into heaven through pearly gates. When the Spirit of God enters into you, you'll become triumphant because Christ has promised not to save us from trouble, but to save us in it.

—Peter Marshall, former Senate chaplain

• How can Paul's affirmation that "God's strength is perfected in weakness" encourage you as you struggle in life?

Thought to Apply: God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars.

— ELBERT G. HUBBARD (AUTHOR AND LECTURER, 19TH CENTURY)

Credits: Adapted from—Wednesday: The Power Book (Preaching Today)

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.

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