“One act of thanksgiving, when things go wrong with us, is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations” (Saint John of Avila).

That’s the litmus test, isn’t it? It’s not how loud you can praise God when everything’s going right and all your traffic lights are green. It’s when you’re in a valley or going through an illness or suffering and can still sing a hallelujah that you show where your allegiance truly lies.

The best kind of testimony is to have everything go wrong and still say with Job, “Yet though He slay me, still will I trust in Him.”

Jesus said when you suffer, not if. The expectation is that suffering and hardships are inevitable not optional. You will have trials. You will suffer. But you won’t be alone.

People expect Christians to hate those who hate them, but when those believers can love their enemies just as Jesus commanded, the world takes notice.

People expect Christians to complain or give up when their world collapses, but when the true followers of Jesus can still praise God in the midst of suffering and pain, people watching know that their faith is real and the hope they offer is real.

No one ever chooses hardship. No one ever wants suffering. But those who go through the valley with even the tiniest amount of faith find that God is with them every single step of the way.

“God, our good Father, will either give us what we ask for, or give us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows” (Timothy Keller)

The basic idea of prayer isn’t giving God information that He doesn’t already know. It’s about presenting your information before God and learning to see it from His point of view.

Your problem doesn’t change because of prayer as much as you do. Your perspective does. Your way of looking at your problem does.

I know in my own life that sometimes I ask for the wrong thing. It’s not a God-glorifying request but rather one that caters to my fleshly appetites and would probably destroy me if I got it.

Sometimes, I ask for things that are too small. God is thinking bigger than my own little world. He’s thinking about the whole world and filling heaven with worshippers from every tribe, tongue, and race.

Sometimes, I don’t get what I ask for when I ask for it because I’m not ready for it. Getting the right thing at the wrong time can be just as bad as getting the wrong thing.

Really, prayer isn’t about getting from God as it is getting to know God. Then you start thinking differently and asking for different things. The more you know God, the less you want from God and the more you simply want God.

“What confuses the enemy is when you keep worshiping with a broken heart, keep praying when you feel empty, and keep trusting God even when nothing makes sense.

That kind of faith moves mountains and makes hell tremble” (Nii A Okromansah, Jr).

I think it comes down to a determination to worship no matter what. It’s about choosing to believe even when believing doesn’t make sense. It’s about following even if it means following alone.

Even when falling away seems like a good option, we can declare with Peter, ““Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69, NLT).

The best kind of testimony is to have your world falling apart and still be able to worship. To have no visible signs of God’s presence and still keep praying. To look at the total chaos of the world and your world and keep trusting.

I think you can’t wait until the crisis comes to decide you want that kind of faith. You have to build up the disciplines while the days are good before life gets too hard. You have to surrender and learn to die you yourself daily before the storm comes.

Most of all, no matter what kind of faith you have or discipline you’ve developed, the only way truly to survive is to fall on the grace of God and into the waiting open arms of Jesus. That’s the only way.

“Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing—it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

A lot of us have the idea that God’s call means going overseas or stepping into something monumental. Or at least I have in the past.

Sometimes God’s call is to be faithful where you are and to be obedient in the smallest things until God knows you can be trusted to handle bigger things. Mother Teresa once said that we do no great things but only small things with great love.

Any act of faithful obedience is a mustard seed that can sprout into something that will bless multitudes. Besides, it’s not our big faith in God that moves mountains but faith in a big God.

Above all, the key is readiness. That means that I am able to obey God in the moment. A friend once said that Christian maturity is the distance between God’s call and your ability to obey. A pastor said that when God does call you, you won’t have time to get ready, so you’ll have to be ready.

Readiness looks a lot like surrender. It looks a lot like letting go of my plans and saying to God, “Your will be done.”

My prayer for you and me is that we will always be ready for God to speak and willing and able to obey once He does.

“God said, ‘write your plans in pencil, but give Me the eraser. I might have something better for you'” (Carey Goins).

That’s the best plan for the future. Write your plans in pencil, and let God have the eraser. I still love the idea that God gives the very best to those who leave the choice with Him.

Every time God told me no, it was always a redirection to something better. It was like when my GPS reroutes me and saves me time on my commute, only better. God’s reroutes often lead to hidden blessings that I would have missed had I maintained my own original course.

There’s a proverb that says that we make our plans, but God is the one who directs our steps. We can take the finite and limited amount of information we have to determine what to do next, but when we leave it in God’s hands, we can rest in the one who sees it all.

I still get frustrated by what seems like God’s delays, but I also tend to forget the past where those delays were saving me from getting what I thought I needed and finding out it was not at all what I wanted. Had I known what God knows, I would have chosen what God chose for me.

“God never witholds from His child that which His love and wisdom call good. God’s refusals are always merciful — “severe mercies” at times but mercies all the same. God never denies us our hearts desire except to give us something better” (Elisabeth Elliot).