Eph 6:   MSG
11  So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way.
12  This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
13  Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet.

A preacher friend of mine once made this statement: “A rose smells nice, but, when it is crushed it brings out it’s true fragance”!

No one likes adversity, yet we know it is part of life here on earth.  When I hear the word cancer my heart breaks for those facing that horrible disease.  Some of them give up as soon as they receive the diagnosis, others face it head on never waivering.

Life is not a picnic.  The folly of our youth when we feel that we are invinceable, the world is ours for the picking.  Oh how wrong we were when reality sets in.  Having to find a job, pay rent, buy groceries, and then put gas in the tank.  I remember my first time living on my own.  I rented a small one bedroom apartment.  Then rent was reasonable.  I had a job at minimum wage working in an orchard.  I went to buy groceries for the very first time and I went to the till.  The clerk rang it all through, the cost showed up on the till.  I took out my wallet, looked at my money, then almost cried for I would be left with about ten dollars which had to last for two weeks.

Hardships can do two things, it can make you bitter, or you can face it and let it make you better.  Like the rose our true sense of who we are comes when we seem to be crushed when we face the giant trials in our life.

The Christian though has been given all the armour they need to walk this rocky road.  Even when we face the thorns and thistles we still can move forward in this battle called life.

I remember when growing up and someone was going through a battle you would hear someone tell them, “keep an upper lip”.  

If you are facing the trial in your life be assured you are not in it alone.  There is one who is always right there with you.  Like the Hebrew children thrown into the fiery furnace when they opened up the furnace doors they saw four men walking around.  Three Hebrew children and the fourth man appeared like the Son of God.