“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;” -Psalm 65:5-6 God doesn’t always answer in ways we expect. We pray, we ask, we seek, and yet the way God moves is often mightier, weightier, and more searching than what we pictured. Sometimes it feels like the answer is only trial, not gentle, not easy. But it is never without purpose, and it is just what we need. These trials are not meant to grieve us, but to shape and correct us, given in righteousness and they are to draw us nearer to Him. The LORD is not distant nor removed, as though testing us from afar. He works as a Father, a teacher, a craftsman, testing not to discard, but to refine, strengthen, and restore. He is the hope of all the earth, the one in whom all depend. There is no place, no position, no distance where His love does not reach or His power d...