Trials and treasures!
Verse for Today: Monday, February 04, 2013
1 Peter 1:6 – In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
The pathway to the great inheritance kept for God’s children is often through hills, valleys, tests and trials. Going through the difficulties in life reveals whether we are truly called people or imitators. There are various tests to authenticate our faith. We feel the pain of the sufferings on our way, but if our eyes are fixed on the great inheritance, these trials will only be felt like it is for a little as passing phase. When our focus is heaven and the blessedness that awaits us, we would be able to discount the present sufferings. In fact our rejoicing over the heavenly inheritance ought to overwhelm us so as to ignore the present persecution, suffering, pain and rejection that we face. Each test or trial may try to take away our joy and frustrate us. But the joy of our focus on the blessings of the heavenly places will re-energize us to rejoicing. Our joy is to focus on the fact that we will be able to see the Lord Jesus in person in His full glory, majesty and splendor. But even our inheritance will be far less attractive to us when compared with the glorious presence of our Lord Jesus from whom we will never be separated. It is in heaven that we will see the result of our toil for the Lord. Considering all these great joys ahead of us, the perils and pressures of life will be felt as if it is momentary. Today let us focus on the permanent pleasures that are set for us to enjoy. Then our temporal sufferings, pain and misery will be like a passing show for a short time and we will be ushered into the majestic presence of our Lord.
Dear friend, are you going through fierce trials of various kinds lately? Are strong winds and waves beating against your life to shatter your peace and rest? These unfavorable situations will continue with its onslaught on you. But the bitter experiences are to test to see how you will react. If you are strongly rooted on the Lord Jesus and the hope of the glory that awaits you, you will be able to react with praises in your heart. Trials are the crucible of faith to make you stronger. Trials measure the level of your faith. Trials teach you patience that you will become more mature in your faith. Trials temper your attitude to make it positive. Trials also sharpen your hope in the victory that the Lord would grant you as you learn great spiritual lessons in the life of faith. But your greatest comfort in times of trials is that the Lord will be with you to take you through it all. He wants you to learn that the intensity of trials will only increase as days go by because victory in each trial is our graduation to go to the next level of trials. We should never fall into the false impression that trails will harm us. But it is to build us up in our walk with the Lord. It is God’s way to prepare us to appropriate the great joys of heaven even while we are here on earth. Our ardent love for the Lord will make our waiting for our eternal home a short span of time which will pass away quickly and we will be with the Lover of our soul. We do not wait for the next trial to come, but for the announcement of the rapture when we will go to be with Lord to enjoy the great inheritance that is kept for us to enjoy.
Romans 8:18 – I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Thought for Today
When our hope is brighter, we will see our inheritance which will overshadow the trials of life.
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