Inflictor and Healer

The rain is mean to represent the fact that all our days won't be sunny... just in case you didn't already know, but He's got a plan for that.

Psalm 44:1-4  O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:  
2 you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;  
3 for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.  
4 You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!

This Psalm was written by the Sons of Korah, who expressed beautiful poetry about God. Even as the Israelites heard stories about their ancestors, they recognized that God drove out the nations...after planting them there in the first place.  He afflicted peoples...and set them free again.  None won any battle in their own strength, but it was God who delivered...and He delighted in them.  He is King and He alone ordains all that comes to pass.
I wish I would remember this when things don't go my way - when my emotions are tied up in knots over failed dreams and disappointments and when people don't behave the way I think they should. God restrains and delivers.  He withholds and then gives.  If He is not in control of all, then He is not God at all.  As His child, I have complete access to Him.  He listens and answers according to what is best for me.  His answer is sometimes no.  His grace is sufficient to sustain me in the most difficult situations that are especially designed for me. Trials are painful because they are personal. My trials won't look like yours and yours won't be the same as mine. They are meant to teach us and change us. The same God that brought them to us will take them from us.  He is both the one who inflicts and the one who heals...but always for our good and according to His plan.