The last time I was going through a period of adversity and heartache, the Lord led me to the above verses in Scripture. As I asked Him to show me how they applied to my life, He revealed to me that if I would pray and stand on His promises of deliverance and victory, instead of giving in to doubt and despair, He would honor my faith by causing those promises to produce a harvest of blessings for me.

In the Parable of the Sower in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells His disciples, "The seed is the Word of God." (Luke 8:11) He goes on to say, "The seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the Word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance." (Luke 8:15 NASB) As the Lord reminded me of these truths, I asked Him to give me some promises from His Word that I could hang on to during my times of trial.

Isaiah 55:10-11 (NASB) talks about the supernatural fruit-bearing power of God's Word: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." When we pray and stand on God's promises in a situation, God will always do something on our behalf, because He has promised that His Word "ALWAYS produces fruit." (Isaiah 55:11 NLT) He will never fail to honor our faith in His Word somehow.

I have been through countless trials and troubles over the years, and I have prayed through every one. But I have never seen God work wonders on my behalf like the times I have prayed His precious promises back to Him in faith. And why is this so pleasing to our God? Because not only will we be abundantly blessed as a result, but He will be greatly glorified. As the last verse in this passage from Isaiah declares: "This miracle will bring great honor to the Lord's name; it will be an everlasting sign of His power and love." (Isaiah 55:13 NLT)

Jesus said that we would experience trials and tribulations while we are in this world (John 16:33), so we will definitely have to endure some hard times while we are here. But we don't have to go through them empty-handed. We can hold fast to God's blessing-bearing Word the whole time, knowing that when we come out of our trials, we will have a harvest of joy and victory to show for it. As the Message Bible so beautifully puts it - "Those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest; those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing!" (Psalm 126:5-6 MSG)

Prayer: Lord, teach me how to study, memorize, and meditate on Your Word, so that I can carry it in my heart through times of trouble and testing. Show me what promises of Yours I should pray and stand on for my victory. Thank You that because Your Word will "always produce fruit," my harvest of abundant blessings is guaranteed!