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Andraé Crouch wrote a very popular Christian song in 2003 called, “Through It All.” The words have helped console many believers as a worship song since being published.
The song starts out “I’ve had many tears and sorrows/I’ve had questions for tomorrow/There’ve been times I didn’t know right from wrong/But in every situation/God gave me blessed consolation/That my trials come to only make me strong.”
The chorus continues “Through it all/Through it all/I’ve learned to trust in Jesus/I’ve learned to trust in God/Through it all/Through it all/I’ve learned to depend upon His Word.”
So let me ask the question, “How do you get through it all?”
I’m sure you’ve noticed that some days, months and even years are quite often more challenging than other times in our lives. It’s impossible to live on the mountaintop continually. Personally, my valley experiences immensely outweigh that handful of mountaintop experiences.
The majority of our lives are spent in what I would call “ho-hum” days. Much of our lives can be perceived as spent in drudgery. For me, those average days are a time to just take a deep breath and draw near to God.
In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus instructs us in how we should pray. In verse 11 he says, “Give us today our daily bread,” which does not simply deal with our food, but with all our provision for the day.
Just imagine God wanting us to ask Him for His daily involvement in all aspects of our lives! Can you imagine Him longing for us to ask Him for our daily bread? That’s what Jesus says.
You see, we really don’t need to dread getting up and going to work or fearing what the day has in store for us. In one way or another, each day can be exciting — if we simply sense God’s presence and His desire to be there through it all.
We are instructed in Psalm 118:6 to say with confidence “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” The writer of Hebrews also reiterates this in Chapter 13:6.
One of God’s many names is Jehovah-Jireh, which means “The Lord will provide.” In Genesis 22, we are told the story of Abraham being commanded by God to take his son, Isaac, to a specific location in the land of Moriah and to offer him as a sacrifice. After God provided a ram to sacrifice instead of Isaac, Abraham named the place Jehovah Jireh.
God wants our obedience and He longs to hear our petitions for our daily bread. Yes, you can go through it all on your own if you prefer, but He truly wants us to acknowledge His presence and recognize His concern for us. This pleases Him greatly.
That’s why He sent His only son to die for us. Christ’s death, burial and resurrection allows us to commune with our Father in Heaven. And there’s not a day that goes by where I’m not focused on Him and the wonderful provision that He lays before me here on this earth and in Heaven.
The final verse of “Through It All” declares, “I thank God for the mountains/And I thank Him for the valleys/I thank Him for the storms He brought me through/For if I’d never had a problem/I wouldn’t know God could solve them/I’d never know what faith in God could do.”
Won’t you join me in placing your daily trust in our Heavenly Father? He longs for us to acknowledge Him as Savior and Lord of all.
Passages to Ponder
— Jim Langley has been writing for more than 30 years while working as a life and health insurance agent in Santa Barbara. In recent years, his passion has turned to writing about his personal relationship with God, and his goal is to encourage others to draw near to Him as well. As a longtime member of CBMC of Santa Barbara (Christian Business Men’s Connection), he started writing Fourth Quarter Strategies columns in 2014, and he now reaches an international audience through the CBMC International devotional Monday Manna. Click here for previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.