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Once again we are filled with the hope we experience as we embark on a new year with all its potential and promise. We are living in a time of great challenges and loss for many individuals and families. Many are without jobs, some losing their homes, some having lost most or all of their savings or retirement funds. There is great unrest and uncertainty and some may question, "Where is God and why does He allow this?"
God is the Creator of all and He has given us control over this world and our individual lives. He does not participate in our lives unless we invite Him. Many ask God for His guidance and strength through their prayers. Many do not. So our world is filled with not only good and evil but also with those attempting to walk in the presence of God and those who do not. To achieve success in even the smallest challenge, those involved must all move together in harmony toward a common goal. God has given each of us the freedom to choose for ourselves the direction our lives will take and the choice to seek God's will for us or to walk alone. The choice each one of us makes affects all of us and those choices together determine what kind of world we live in. God works in our individual lives to the extent we allow and it is what we do as individuals that affects those in our small piece of the world and consequently in the world as a whole. God does not create or allow suffering, war and poverty. We do.
It is through the acceptance of the challenges and tragedies of this world that we come to know God, through the comfort He gives us when we pray, the strength He gives us when we work in His name and learn to leave the final outcome to Him. Even when it seems that He has abandoned us, we eventually realize that He has given us the wisdom and the strength to overcome the next challenge we face. If we turn away from God in our trials, we will become bitter and disbelieving and never realize the potential He has placed within us. If we turn to God in our trials, He will lift us up, help us see beyond the moment to a greater purpose and ultimately give us the peace that can be found no other way.
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