TRIED AND PROVEN..BY DAVID GUZIK

"Trouble and anguish have overtaken me,
Yet Your commandments are my delights.
The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting;
Give me understanding, and I shall live." (Psalm 119:143-144)

There is A LOT of trouble in this world, and everyone has some share
in it. There are troubles that we experience and troubles we
observe. Some of these troubles come from evil men, some come
from natural calamity. All of it sometimes drives us to despair,
wondering where God is in the midst of all the trouble.

In such seasons, it's good to read what DAVID wrote:
"Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet Your
commandments are my delights." Despite the difficulties of his
life, the Psalmist still found delight in God's word. His appreciation
of God and His word was not only valid in good times, but also in
trouble and anguish.

This is one of the GREAT qualities of the Christian faith.

It is true in the darkest of days, even in times of trouble and anguish.

Christianity was born into a world that knew evil, tragedy, and
sorrow on a scale far beyond what most of us know.

When Jesus was about 11 years old, there was a Jewish revolt
against the Romans in the Galilee region. The rebels took over a
city about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) from Nazareth.

When the Romans CRUSHED the rebellion, they LEVELED the city, sold the
surviving women and children into slavery, and crucified 2,000 men
along the roads all around Nazareth.

From His youngest days,Jesus looked at the horror and brutality of this world, and was determined to not only pay the price to forgive and redeem the penalty of it all, but also to transform men and women to make such
things far less common.

DAVID KNEW what Jesus also knew - "Trouble and anguish
have overtaken me, yet Your commandments are my delights."

For them, the truth and promises of God's word were NOT just
HELPFUL HINTS or theoretical statements.

They WERE THE REASON for delight even in the most difficult seasons.

He continued, "The righteousness of Your testimonies is
everlasting; give me understanding, and I shall live."

We might THINK that what DAVID NEEDED to live was deliverance from
his trouble and anguish. He found that understanding the word
of God was even MORE important.

One reason DAVID found this to be so was because he UNDERSTOOD that
the righteousness of God's word IS EVERLASTING.

He KNEW the eternal character of the word of God, and it made that word all the MORE IMPORTANT and relevant to him.

I've read that there used to be a habit among some Christians to
write the letters T and P in the margin of the Bible, next to certain
promises of God.

The letters stood for "Tried and Proven," because
these followers of Jesus discovered for themselves exactly what
DAVID found - that we CAN TEST the promises of God, and
PROVE THEM to be true.