John Bunyan once said, “A believer is seldom long at ease; when one trial is gone, another doth him seize.”  We can be sure that when we are on the mountain top, the valley is not far away. We have many joys, but we must have afflictions. The apostle called it, “trouble in the flesh” (1 Cor. 7:28). 

     Sometimes these troubles come from our family relationships. Those whose lives are interwoven with ours NATURALLY cause us great grief SPIRITUALLY. Christ said, “A man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Mt. 10:36). How can it be otherwise? The people of this world never did understand the people of God and they never will. “Light came into the world and the DARKNESS COMPREHENDED IT NOT” (Jn. 3:19). How can darkness do anything to light but oppose it? Light and darkness can’t mix; oil and water will not mix; and it cannot be expected that the believer shall have peace with the unbeliever, whether they live across the street or in the same house.

     When King David came home from that high and holy adventure with God, when he brought the ark back to the tabernacle, who should meet him at the door with sarcasm, criticism, and ridicule but his own wife! When I look at David singing and dancing before the ark, how happy he is! How filled with the joy of the Lord! But I know what is ahead and so do you. And it will hurt more because it will come from the most unexpected source – his own dear wife! Satan works in this manner; “wounded in the house of my friends” (Zech. 13:6).

     Husbands, wives, children, parents, and close friends who do not know our Lord and His sovereign, free, and redeeming grace will not help us on our heavenly journey but will do all they can do to wound and hurt. This, too, we will endure and accept as the good providence of the Lord!