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Andy talks, in the third part of his series at http://www.northpoint.org/messages, about how circumstantial faith is so fragile. Most men of God were actually martyred!! They continued to believe, though, because their faith was in the person of Jesus Christ, who they saw rise from the dead. They didn't assume Jesus would do anything. In fact, there's a story about how Jesus went beside the "healing pool" where many people were sick and in need of healing. He walked into the crowd and picked out one guy who he healed. Why didn't he heal the others? We don't know. But that's the point. In John 16, "in this world you will have trouble", so we can't fall into the trap of believing otherwise. We have a God who is with us and even went through, as in Hebrews, the temptations and feelings we go through. Jesus spent the night DREADING the events of the following day. He had seen what happens to someone who is crucified and he went through the agony of the night knowing what was to come. He felt the betrayal of a friend. He faced watching his family fall apart. Because He knows what we're carrying, we can approach him with boldness and confidence. When we come to him with all of our stuff with informal honesty and openness, we will walk away with something from Him every time. It's like what we experience as fathers for our children. They may not know the value of that, but we do, right? Jesus understands! He wept for Lazurus because he loved Lazurus. We can go before Him and expect to receive mercy and grace from Him. It may simply be the strength or energy to endure. God may not deliver us from our consequences, but he can deliver us through them. If we cling to Him and walk with Him despite what we think we know about our relationship, He will always be with us with grace, mercy and His presence. When God intervenes, we know. But when He says "no" or "be patient", we don't like it. That's okay, because we will walk away every time with something from Him.