December 16.
Afflictions Are Accomplishments

1 Peter 5:9

Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Once you go through some things, you gain a real knowledge that you would not get if you had not gone through. You see every trial you go through is a lesson that God is teaching you. Some things you can learn in a seminary, some things you can learn at a university, and some things you can learn out of a book, but some things you’ve got to learn through experience.

My momma did the best she could in teaching me how to pray when I was just a boy. I learned my bedtime prayer. You could shake me anywhere and I could pray that prayer. But when I really learned how to pray was when I had to raise my own family. Sometimes I had more bills than money. I had a son that was suffering from a sickness. And sitting at the hospital night and day praying over my boy that God would deliver him and heal his body, that’s when I learned what prayer was.

In order to really learn some truths, you’ve got to experience some stuff. Its good to read all you can, but if you haven’t been there, you don’t know the full meaning. That’s why some folk don’t know the goodness of God yet because they have not experienced anything except for a few little pains. But when you’ve really had to go through something in life and God has kept you with a sane mind and kept you walking up right, you can turn around and tell somebody “The Lord was by my side.” He is a caring God.

So resist the devil. Recognize who he is. He doesn’t show up in red suits. He puts a lot of truth in with his lies or else you wouldn’t believe them. We must also respect him. Don’t play with him. Don’t be making no little eggs calling them deviled eggs or devil’s food cake. He is a devil. And whatever he can do to destroy you, he will do it.