Strength for the Moment

After she and her family were caught hiding Jewish people in their home in the Netherlands during World War II, Corrie ten Boom was sent to a Nazi concentration camp. The ten Booms were a Christian family who risked their lives because of their belief in the Scriptures and that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people. They were arrested and sent to concentration camps, where both her father and her sister died.

When Corrie was a little girl, she would read stories about the martyrs of the faith. But as she struggled with the thought of her own family dying, her father told her, “Corrie when you and I go to Amsterdam—when do I give you your ticket?”

“Just before we get on the train.”

“Exactly,” he said. “And our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things, too. . . . When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need—just in time.”

Maybe you know someone who is going through a time of hardship, and you’ve thought, “I could never handle that.” Right now you couldn’t. But you are not there. And if the Lord lets you get there, He will give you the strength you need, when you need it.

God was with the apostle Paul in the middle of a violent storm. Paul told the crew, “Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar!’” (Acts 27:23–24 NLT). Paul could face that storm because he knew that God was with him.

God always will give us what we need, when we need it.