During the Depression era in the 1930s, Little Orphan Annie was a popular comic strip and radio program. Years later, it was the basis for the musical comedy Annie. The opening scene shows Annie in an orphanage where the girls are forced to clean and scrub in the middle of the night. Expressing their feelings of helplessness, they sing: “It’s the hard-knock life for us. No one cares for you a smidge when you’re in an orphanage. It’s the hard-knock life.”

When we talk about “the school of hard knocks,” we’re referring to the difficult experiences in life that have instructed us. Although it’s part of human nature to avoid pain, the believer can learn from painful circumstances.

The psalmist wisely said, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (119:71). His particular heartache was the slander of his good name (vv.69-70). Yet even in this, the psalmist realized that his circumstances could teach him to value the Word of God.

What problem are you facing today? Hand it over to the Lord in prayer. Then meditate on Scripture and thank God for the life lessons you are about to learn. The Lord of heaven and earth is sovereign—even over “the school of hard knocks.”  — Dennis Fisher