Victory from Trials

As I'm preparing for Compass Night this Thursday evening @ 6:15 (please pray for me about this!!!), I have been reading a number of books and wanted to share this line from Bill Thrasher's A Journey to Victorious Praying--a book I can so far recommend though I haven't finished it yet. He wrote:

"Many times great difficulties precede special works of God. You can even say that God wins His greatest victories in the midst of apparent defeat. This can be clearly demonstrated in the life of our Lord on earth. When Jesus was crucified and placed in the tomb, it looked like the forces of unrighteousness had triumphed. However, it was in this time of apparent defeat that our victory for our salvation was won."

Think about how this is true over and over again in the Scriptures and then bring that truth into your own life. I don't know what you're going through, but take heart. God has not and will never abandoned you (see Matt 28:20, Phil 4:5 & Heb 13:5) and will bring victory from the what looks like defeat (Rom 8:28).