A promise for hard times

Psalm 50:15 '...call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honour me.'

I think that this instruction to call upon the Lord can be taken both as a reminder and as an encouragement.

It can be a reminder when things are already hard and beyond anything I can do to change them, to return to the Lord, to call upon him and
to prove that what He has promised He will do and a reminder that I must give Him the glory when He keeps his word.

It is also an encouragement to be remembered for when the difficult times come - as they surely will - that He will be there for us and He will hear my prayer when I call on Him and He will deliver me, and cause me to praise and honour Him for what He has done.

However in my own experience, His deliverance probably won't be be a quick or immediate fix, although it may. He may be using the situation for my growth in Him, to increase my faith, to rub off some rough edges in my personality. I may have to wait for him to open a door, and to change attitudes - not only mine, but those of other people, He also may need to change situations as well. But I can be sure that in His perfect time, and in His way, He will answer my prayer and deliver me.

One of the times this happened in the life of my family was last Autumn. My eldest son who has health problems was unable to find suitable employment and had spent most of the previous two years unemployed. This was a strain on our finances. It seemed that what would be best for him was to be employed in a small family business where there would be some understanding if there were days when his health prevented him from working, or if his health was such that he couldn't complete a full day. To find such a position for someone with no work experience seemed impossible. We prayed and we prayed, but nothing came up. Then our financial situation changed again. Our middle son went to university and we lost the state benefits that we were getting for him, and our income dropped a lot leaving us in quite dire straits. We continued to pray knowing that we had to trust the Lord to do something... About this time I received a phone call from my brother who has his own business. After we exchanged some family news, he mentioned that one of his members of staff was going on maternity leave and he needed to get a replacement for her. We talked about the difficulties of advertising for staff and then he rang off. A couple of days later he called again and asked if our eldest son would be interested in working for him! Wow! And it went from there. Our son started work in October for my brother and is about to complete six months in the company! He was able to begin to contribute to the family income - just when it was most needed - and he has permanent work! What an answer to prayer! And it was all of God's doing! Praise be to Him!