THE BLESSED NATURE OF TRIALS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to all the world.

If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.

But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His name!

So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you. 

1 Peter 4:12-13, 14. 16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

There’s good news and bad news associated with believing in Jesus and becoming a Christian.

The good news is that you immediately gain the assurance of eternal life and a place in Heaven, a guaranteed and glorious future that no one can take away.

On the flip side, the Christian life isn’t for the faint of heart for on this side of Heaven, persecution and suffering are a constant possibility, just as they were for the One who saved us. In fact, this is what He shares with His disciples on this matter:

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also.” John 15:18-20

Jesus made it clear here. Not one of His servants is greater than He is and if He endured suffering, persecution, and hate then so will anyone who affiliates and aligns themselves with Him.

Indeed, believing in Jesus doesn’t bring a person into some kind of perfect worldly existence free from all the tribulations of life. We’ll only be free from that when He returns but as we share in the various hardships that our Savior endured, the scriptures tell us that we should see the blessings that are found in those trials. Look at this wonderful passage from the eighth chapter of Romans where we find the Lord speaking truth to us about the joys and sorrows that come from the Christian life:

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Vv.14-18

The gifts imparted on someone who places their belief in Jesus abound in these five verses.

First, they gain the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, complete with all the guidance and counsel they could ever need in life.

Second, this receiving of the Holy Spirit’s lead results in the Christian believer becoming a bona fide child of God, an “adoption into sonship” that gives every believer the right to call God their “Abba, Father”.

Finally, because the Christian believer is a true child of the God Most High, they become a co-heir to the very Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus, their savior.

It’s nothing short of a magnificent progression of endowments granted by the God who is the Giver of every good and perfect gift from above (James 1:17), a progression of endowments that should leave us in an abundant spirit of thanksgiving and praise for we will one day share in the very glory that Jesus has already entered into.

That’s what’s ahead but before we get there, we have the matter of our present life at hand, a life where we will first share in the sufferings of our Savior before we get to share in His glory. This is the blessing found in our trials when we go through difficulty due to what we believe. We share in the experience of Jesus and what a privilege it is to walk anywhere and through anything that He did.

No one likes going through tough times but when we look to the cross, we’re reminded that even death couldn’t keep Christ from the glory His Father had in store for Him, a glory that far exceeded the pain and anguish He endures on earth.

This same assurance applies to us as believers today. For the Word of God is clear when it lets us know that any suffering we might endure while going through trials in this life for the cause of Christ will pale in comparison to the glory that will be revealed to us later when we claim our inheritance and inhabit the place Jesus has prepared for us in Heaven.

Oh what a wonderful day that will be, a day worth looking forward to no matter when life might bring us here on earth.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.