The disappointment has come - not because God desires to hurt you or make you miserable or to demoralize you or ruin your life or keep you from ever knowing happiness. He wants you to be perfect and complete in every aspect, lacking nothing. It's not the easy times that make you more like Jesus, but the hard times.

Ultimately, the goal of personal Bible study is a transformed life and a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.

Where do you run for help? When you are in trouble, what is your first instinct? Do you run to others or to God? Is it usually the counsel of another rather than the counsel found in waiting upon God in prayer? Why is this the way it is? Why do we run to man before we run to God?

Snuggle in God's arms. When you are hurting, when you feel lonely, left out. let Him cradle you, comfort you, reassure you of His all-sufficient power and love.

If you are God's child, you are no longer bound to your past or to what you were. You're a new creature in Jesus Christ.

When you know what God says, what He means, and how to put His truths into practice, you will be equipped for every circumstance of life.

Have we forgotten our calling? (2 Cor. 5:19-20) Remember that your first and foremost calling is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that gospel is a twofold message: His death for our sins and His resurrection for our lives.