Losses and hardships are often the tools our great Shepherd uses to bring his wandering sheep back home. Like fierce dogs, they drive the wanderers back to the fold. You cannot tame a well-fed lion. You must bring it down from its great strength, make it hungry, and then it will submit to the trainer's hand. How often we have seen Christians made obedient to the Lord's will through scarcity of bread and hard labor!

When believers grow rich and successful, many carry their heads far too high and speak with swollen pride. Like David, they tell themselves, "My mountain stands firm. I will never be shaken." When the Christian becomes wealthy, respected, healthy, with a happy family, he too often invites Carnal Security to feast at his table. And if he is truly God's child? There is a rod being prepared for him.

Wait and watch. You may see his wealth evaporate like a morning mist. There goes a piece of his property. How quickly the deeds change hands! That debt, that bounced check... how fast the losses pile up. Where will they end?

But here is the blessed sign of spiritual life: when these disasters strike one after another, and he begins to grieve over his wandering heart, and he runs back to his God. Blessed are the waves that crash the sailor onto the rock of salvation! Financial ruin often enriches the soul. If God's chosen one will not come to him with full hands, then he will come with empty ones.

If God, in his grace, can find no other way to make us honor him before the watching world, he will throw us into the deep waters. If we refuse to honor him from the peak of prosperity, he will bring us down to the valley of poverty.

But do not lose heart, heir of sorrow, when you are disciplined this way. Instead, recognize the loving hand that corrects you, and say, "I will get up and go to my Father."