All right, good evening and welcome to our midweek Bible study on Thursday nights. We typically go through the Bible verse by verse,

and we are not going to do that tonight. Rather, tonight I sense that the Lord would have us go in a different direction,

and we are Lord willing planning to resume our study through the Bible.

We finish Proverbs and we will again Lord willing get to the book of ecclesiastes.

But tonight I want to talk with you about why it is and the purpose of God

allowing us to go through trials and difficulties in our lives.

I want to talk to you about those times when hard times hit.

And certainly I do know that we are living in a time where people are really hurting

and struggling and it's getting very hard and it does seem that it is likely

to get even more difficult with the trajectory of where things are heading and certainly the

news kits worse and worse with each passing day.

I mean, it's to the point now where, I mean, it used to be I would just keep everything on mute.

And now I just, I actually just turn it off.

And I mean, it's just bad news, bad news, bad news, bad news. And it's like the Lord saying,

I have some good news. And so what I'm hoping to do tonight is just encourage you, especially those of you who are really

struggling, whether you're here tonight or watching online, you're going through a very difficult

time. And I just want to encourage you with that which the Lord has encouraged me with over the years.

Tonight is really just kind of a from the heart, from my own experience with the Lord during

some very dark times, very hard times, and how the Lord as he is always so faithful

has gotten me through some very

difficult and hard situations that were really impossible.

And it was at those times that God, as only he can, can do the impossible.

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