During hard times one finds it easy to cry out to God. During really hard times one finds it difficult to believe God loves them and is good. Maybe the purpose of the really hard times isn't to get us to simply cry out to God... maybe the point is to get us to have a deeper understanding that God is good and how he loves us. He is not some senile old grandfather who just wants everyone to have a good time. He is a father who wants his children to grow and learn how to have faith and persevere under the trials of life. So they can be successful and victorious against a real enemy who wants to destroy them. Learning that the pain was allowed for our good is a tough lesson... it is the lesson of the really hard times. Eventually, the really hard times ease up. Do we continue to cry out to God and spend time pursuing him, or do we fall to pursuits of leasure? The enemy never takes a day off... His goal is to destroy us. When things seem easy, it may be that we are simply