Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
All through the ages, Satan has tried to shake people's confidence in God's character. One thoughtful writer has said, "The world is dark with misapprehension of God." Such false conceptions of Him are at the root of pagan or heathen religions, and multitudes of professed Christians are suffering various kinds of depression for the same reason. For example, think about the doctrine of God torturing lost people in painful fire for all eternity; that paints Him in darker colors than history's worst dictators.
But even those who seek to live close to God may be tempted to wonder if He is the kind, loving, just Heavenly Father that they want to believe in. Why does He permit injustice? When they pray to Him, begging for a piece of bread, does He give them a stone? Satan is so cruel that he would like to make you think that is God's character!
The answer to that terrible temptation is Jesus. When He became our "second Adam," entering the stream of our humanity to become "Immanuel, ... God with us," He suffered being tempted "in all points ... as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). On His cross He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
The Bible is full of examples of people who were tempted to think He gave them a stone instead of bread: Job, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph sold by his brothers as a slave, David fleeing from the king of Israel, Saul "the anointed of the Lord," Jeremiah in his dungeon and his mud hole, John the Baptist dying alone in a dungeon, Paul sick unto death, etc.
Let us build our faith not on transient feelings, but on the solid rock of Bible truth. Our heavenly Father is true and faithful!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 6, 2013.
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