Surviving the Tough Times

1Pe 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1Pe 1:4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Helen Keller was a different kind of person. At 19 months she became both blind and deaf, because of a disease, probably meningitis.

Anne Sullivan arrived at Keller's house in March 1887, when Helen was 7, and immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller was frustrated, at first, because she did not understand that every object had a word uniquely identifying it. Keller's big breakthrough in communication came the next month, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water"; she then nearly exhausted Sullivan demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.

When introduced to Christianity, she said, "I always knew He was there, but I didn't know His name! Though her politics were as radical as can be, never the less, she acknowledged the Lord as her Savior.

Speaking out of her own deep suffering and experience: "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. Helen Keller

You are going through the fire. You don't know if you can keep going. Money's tight, times are hard, relationships are strained, health is broken. You have had an unbroken string of setbacks. You are discouraged, wondering if all is lost, hang in there friend, God knows right where you are and is closely monitoring your situation.

Perhaps the devil has put you into the furnace, but you need to know that God has his hand on the thermostat!