A Place of Abundance

I love the transformation described in Psalm 66:10-12. The psalmist declares: "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us a silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance."
Don't you love that phrase "yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance"? Those words offer hope to anyone who is in the midst of a trial, who may be suffering while they sojourn this earth.
Certainly the people of Israel knew suffering. Much of it was brought upon them by their own misdeeds. Instead of seeking the Lord with all their heart, soul and strength, they went after futile idols, and all those idols brought to them was alienation and destruction. At times, however, the Lord brought trial to them. In so doing He was testing a people, teaching them to trust Him and lean upon Him alone. They had know that kind of trial in Egypt but the Lord brought them out and intended to bring them to a place of abundance.
We, too, will know suffering in this world. It may feel that we are in a net, that God has laid a crushing burden on our backs; that men are riding over our heads; that we are going through fire and a flood of water. Some of this may be as a result of our own folly, but some of it may be because the Lord wants to take us further into His life.
At a spiritual level we all know the bondage of being enslaved to our own selfish ways, and thus alienated from God. But, in Christ, God changes all that. He brings us to a place of abundance. And how is that place described? Peter describes it in 2:9-10 like this: But you are chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."
Now that's transformation! We who were alienated, separated from God and His life, living in bondage and fear, are now in Christ, brought to to be His people, His very own possession. Mercy is poured upon us in abundance and we are given a position in the universe which is second to none - we are called to proclaim His excellencies to a world in darkness.
Do you know this place of abundance? Has the Lord brought you to see your bondage and alienation, and has He given you grace to seek His Son who alone can lift you up to this place of abundance? And if you have come to the Lord in this way, but today are being pressed by your circumstances, remember that our Lord is able to take you through this valley and set you on a high place. Look to the Lord. In Him there is always hope!