Scottish author Sir Walter Scott faced financial disaster when his publisher went bankrupt in 1826. He was heavily invested in the firm, and it appeared that he would lose everything, including Abbotsford, his castle-like home. A Christian of unwavering faith, he wrote in his journal, "Things are so much worse than I apprehended that I shall neither save Abbotsford nor anything else. Naked we entered the world and naked we leave it. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

A life that doesn't undergo heartbreaking adversity is rare. Job was not overstating our common experience when he lamented, "Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble" (Job 14:1).

Many of us talk about loss and suffering and argue about why evil things happen to good people. But it's quite different to deal victoriously with the painful experiences that happen to us personally. What we really need in the teeth of affliction is not a plausible explanation but the ability to endure without emotional collapse or spiritual bitterness. We need the sustaining confidence that enables us to believe in God's love and wisdom (1:21; 2:10).

Pray for an unfaltering faith that stands strong under life's greatest pressures.  — Vernon C. Grounds