Some time back I was in the midst of a trial. I had prayed about the problem, yet improvement seemed far away. I was not focusing on God, but on myself.

One Sabbath I sat down to play the piano and re-focus spiritually. Suddenly words from Psalm 8 raced across my mind: "What is man?" I grabbed my Bible and read about David staring up at "the moon and the stars" that God ordained (verses 3-4).

David rightly compared his smallness with the greatness of God. At the end, David exalted God by exclaiming, "How excellent is Your name in all the earth!" (verse 9). He magnified God and humbled himself.

Many of us have spent decades in the Church, having been called from the world. Others have grown up in the faith. All have heard thousands of messages on man's ultimate destiny and God's great plan.

And yet, do we forget when life gets us down? I know I needed this reminder.

All of us have problems. Job said man was born to trouble (Job 5:7). Yet, when we have troubles, do we let them get us down? The human tendency is to exalt ourselves and humble God. A converted mind does just the opposite: magnify God and humble self.

It is much easier to do this when life is a breeze, isn't it? Yet when troubles assail us from the four winds, doesn't it make us feel better to smugly remind ourselves how well we are doing... and why did God allow this trial?

Yet our challenge is to turn to the God of David, the one true God of the Bible. We need to humble ourselves and focus on this awesome Being, the great Creator who hears our prayers and loves us in spite of us.

He is the same God who heard and answered Nehemiah's prayer when he said, "Do not let all the trouble seem small before You" (Nehemiah 9:32).

On clear evenings, I like to go outside and stare up into the heavens. Invariably, I end up thinking, "Surely the great God who made all of this can help me with my puny little problems." Has He changed?

In chapter 32:2, Job "justified himself rather than God." Yet he later said, "Now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself" (42:5-6).

God wants us to be born in His family. He will use our trials to convert us to that end, if we will let Him. So let's focus on God's great plan! Let's magnify Him and humble ourselves.