Abraham "grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform " ( Rom.4:20 21).

We also bring great glory to God, when we trust Him in the midst of impossible situations. We know that there is no problem that God cannot handle. He can solve every problem that Satan creates - anywhere. Even the President's heart is in His hand, and He can turn it in our favour ( Prov.21:1 ).

So we must always trust God, no matter what happens, and confess our faith that God will crush Satan under our feet. Then we will triumph over Satan, no matter what he does. I have seen this happen again and again in my own life.

Since God wants to give us a spiritual education here on earth, we should anticipate that our problems will become more and more difficult as time goes on, just as in school our math problems became tougher and tougher, as we advanced to higher classes. But we would never have wanted to go back to a lower class, just to avoid the challenge of a tougher math problem! So also we must not be surprised when God allows us to face tougher situations as we grow in grace. Thus we will become a stronger, bolder and more confident Christian.

Be careful at all times that our conscience does not condemn us about anything. Only then can we come boldly before God ( 1 Jn.3:21 , 22 ) and ask Him to solve our problems. To ask God for wisdom in trial (See James 1:1-7), is to ask Him for the solution to any problem we are facing. Since God has a solution to every problem, James says that we must count it as joy when we encounter various types of trials - because we can have a new experience of God thereby, as He solves the problem for us.

There are only two times that we read that "Jesus marvelled" (KJV) - once when he saw faith, and the other when he saw unbelief. When the Roman centurion said that Jesus could speak a word and his servant (who was many miles away) would be healed, Jesus marvelled at his faith ( Matt.8:10 ). Then when Jesus came to his own hometown, and they would not believe in Him, He marvelled at their unbelief ( Mark 6:6 ). The centurion was so humble that he told the Lord that he did not consider himself worthy that Jesus should even enter his house.

A Canaanite woman who also once asked the Lord to heal her daughter (who was many miles away) was another person Jesus commended highly for her faith ( Matt.15:28 ). When Jesus used the illustration of dogs not being given the children's bread, she promptly accepted her place in all humility as that of a dog at the foot of the table. She was not offended. In both these incidents, we see one thing in common: That there is a very close connection between humility and faith. The humbler we are, the less confidence we have in ourselves, and the less we think of our own talents and accomplishments, the more we can have faith. The prouder we are, the less we will have faith. We must always realize that we are not worthy to stand before the Lord. It is God's tremendous grace that He allows us to do so. We must never take that for granted. So pursue humility with all your heart.