“If my people would only listen to me,
if Israel would only follow my ways,
how quickly I would subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes!
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last forever.
But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Psalm 81:13-16 (NIV)
Who would have believed the sweetest of blessings could flow from the unlikeliest of places? Honey from a rock. Sweetness in the wilderness. Blessing in the hard places.
This prophetic word was spoken to the nation of Israel yet it applies to us as well. If my people would listen to me and . . . follow my ways . . . When we are willing to heed God’s voice and trust His ways, those hard places can be where we see the hand of God moving, providing, blessing us in unexpected ways. He may not remove the hard times or lead us around them, but He will transform them into a place of blessing.
Are you standing in a hard place? Does it feel like you can’t move beyond the obstacles? Rather than asking God to remove it, ask Him to use it. Looking back you just might see that it was in the hardest of times that you witnessed God turn your hardship into a place of sweet provision.
Prayer: Lord, in you I have all that I need. Satisfy me today with your presence. In your name I pray, Amen.
Thought: “Anything that makes us need God is a blessing”—Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth