That verse makes it sound like Christians never have problems, right?  And when we do, all we have to do is pray is everything is ok, right?  Not necessarily.  

        Christians do have problems.  And sometimes, God doesn't take us out of our problem.  Sometimes, the way God "saves us" is by giving us strength to handle the problem.. to live with it.

       This is a issue for some people.  For some, it prevents them from believing in God.  There was an article recently in The New York Times about a young girl in Rhode Island who is an atheist who has filed a lawsuit to  have a prayer removed from the wall of her school.  

        She said; "Jessica said she had stopped believing in God when she was in elementary school and her mother fell ill for a time. “I had always been told that if you pray, God will always be there when you need him,” she said. “And it didn’t happen for me, and I doubted it had happened for anybody else. So yeah, I think that was just like the last step, and after that I just really didn’t believe any of it.”

       Jessica isn’t the only one who has experienced that.  There are, unfortunately, lots of people who don’t believe in God because, as they will say “How could a loving God allow suffering in this world?” 

          Now that question could lead us into a long discussion on the presence of evil and suffering but that’s not the purpose of this post.  Go back to the verse… “…he saved me from all my troubles.”  Sometimes, God just gives us strength to handle our trials. 

            Today, whatever you are facing, know that God loves you and is with you. 

            I love these lyrics;

            “God is too wise to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind.

            So when you don’t understand, When you don’t see His plan.

            When you can’t trace His hand, Trust his heart.”