CORPUS CHRISTI—People discover the strength of God during their durations of distress, a featured speaker told the African-American Fellowship of Texas worship rally on the eve before the Baptist General Convention of Texas Annual Meeting.
Byron Stevenson
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Byron Stevenson, pastor of The Fort Bend Church in Sugar Land, said Christian leaders encounter times of trial and testing. Holding to a proper perspective and strong faith in God is the key to believers making it through them, he emphasized.
Trials are opportunities for Christians to grow stronger and more reliant on God, Stevenson said. God is with his followers in the midst of their struggles.
"Your straining is your training," he preached.
Stevenson encouraged people going through tough times to pray to God and rely on him to carry them through. In 2008, Stevenson's father-in-law and father both died. Hurricane Ike later destroyed his house. It was a difficult time where he sometimes felt he didn't have the strength to stand and preach, but he was able to see God working.
"God showed up week after week when I stood behind the pulpit and preached while my heart broke," he said.
God is a deliverer, Stevenson said. He brought the Israelites out of Egypt. God sent his Son to die on a cross to deliver mankind from sin and into a relationship with him.
"When the storm is over," Stevenson said, "you can look back and say, 'I made it.'"
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