The Need for Trials

There are some truths related to trials that we--I--occasionally forget.
First, all trials that come into my life are need based. God has a specific purpose related to my spiritual maturity and related to my ability to know Him more deeply that is immersed in the trial He plans into my walk. For example, when God puts me in a situation that creates in my heart and mind a fear of the future, a fear of my needs being met, it is undoubtedly because I need to grow in my confidence that He is the God who holds my future in His hands--lovingly. I have been relying--am still relying--on my ability to, independently of God, meet my own needs. So as my loving Father, He simply makes that impossible. He invites me to really trust fully in His promise to supply all my need. He invites me to really trust fully that He is the God of "more than you ask or think." Knowing my stubborn independence and self-reliance, He moves in my life so that I will develop a genuine faith in what I believe in my head but, not yet, in my walk--that He can always be trusted. He wants me to cast all my cares on Him to thwart the intimidating roar of the lion. He wants me to take the winds of adversity and soar on the eagle wings of faith.
And if I struggle with trusting my children and grandchildren to His care, undoubtedly, it is because I have not yet learned to love unconditionally. I have not yet learned to advocate faithfully in intercessory prayer. I do not yet embrace with my walk that He loves my children and grandchildren so much more than I could ever love them. Such a trial makes me a better lover and a more fervent man of prayer. The trial is designed to be transformational, not punitive. He wants nothing more than for me to reflect more of His image to the world He sent me to. His trials--each and every one of them--have as their central purpose not a desire to push me away from Him in petty self-pity, but a desire to draw me closer into His heart, more confident in His incalculable love, and more trusting in His unfathomable wisdom.
And that leads me to another aspect of suffering that I must always remember. Suffering is the evidence of genuine faith. All those who are truly His children have been given the transformational blessing of trials. All those who are truly His children are reminded through trials--should be reminded--that He is the God of love. The God who loves them--who always loves them. And our trials are evidence to others of the genuineness of our faith in the God of love--the God who wants to love them through every trial that they are experiencing. Our faith to see the possible in the impossible . . . Our faith to recognize the victory in the failure . . . Our faith to embrace the need to rely on the strength to endure found only in the weakness . . . And our faithfulness to radiate the joy that comes through humble submission to His love and to His wisdom--all are designed to be compelling evidence to a lost world of the genuine love of Calvary's cross and the undeniable power of the empty tomb. Our faith in difficult times says to the world that it is worth it to follow Him through the valleys of life's shadows--no matter how deep the valleys or how deep the darkness. Many, I believe, will be in Heaven because a child of God in the midst of difficult times gave evidence through a life of joyous trust that Jesus' love is the realest truth on earth--and in heaven.
May God's Spirit enthrone these truths on my heart every day. And may my response be days filled with joyful praise that He loves me enough to keep working at transforming me into His image and that He loves me enough to assure me that I am His--and that He trusts me enough to use my life as evidence to a suffering world of His redeeming, trustworthy love. The love that calls to them: "Come unto me and I will give you rest."

Growing Old

Great things about growing old:

As the body decays, the soul is enriched.
Looking back, it is impossible to count all the blessings that He created in my life out of my worst yesterdays.
The Challenge: I'm still here. He obviously has something for me to do for His glory. And He'll supply the power to do it. And then tell me "Thank You." Imagine that! Despite my past record, He has confidence in His ability to still use me. And wants to!
Gray hairs--according to Him--a sign of all the wisdom He's given. (I wonder what fewer hairs is a sign of?)
The Word that I've hid in my heart, His Spirit has miraculously transformed into spontaneous behavior that reflects His grace--the grace that specializes in weakness.
So many truths that I knew in my head I now know by experience. You know, like, God is so good. I will never leave you nor forsake you. When you are faithless, I will be faithful. My love for you is inescapable. I can go back into your yesterdays and saturate them with My goodness and mercy. I took care of all your tomorrows yesterday. And I will know at least one more: "Yes, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for He will be with me."
I cherish the gift of each day.
I've got my eyes on the sparrows and the lilies of the valley.
Following Him--no matter what--brings a daily joy that is incomprehensible.
And I am so much closer to seeing Him--face-to-face.

As the body decays, the soul is enriched.

Revolutionary Behavior

Peter as Nero began his vicious persecution of the church falsely accusing them of burning down--destroying--Rome gave this advice to the scattered seed of faithful believers: "Your conduct among the surrounding peoples in your different countries should always be beautiful, always be good and right, so that although they may in the usual way slander you as evildoers, yet when disasters come they may glorify God when they see how well you conduct yourselves. Obey every man-made authority for the Lord's sake--whether it is the emperor, as the supreme ruler, or the governors whom he has appointed to punish evildoers and reward those who do good service. It is the will of God that you may thus silence the ill-informed criticisms of the foolish. As free men you should never use your freedom as an excuse for doing something wrong, for you are at all times servants of God."

As hostility toward Christ--and thus toward His followers--increases, Peter says we need to live a beautiful life, submitting to those in authority even if they are doing the exact opposite of what their duties are before God. You cannot be a servant of God and do otherwise. You cannot glorify Him and do otherwise. Without submitting to those in authority, you cannot turn slanderers into those who recognize and acknowledge His character. Anything else is an "excuse for doing something wrong." How beautiful is your life--in His eyes?

"You should have respect for everyone; you should love our brotherhood, fear God and honor the emperor."

Hunger

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness."

"O, taste and see that the Lord is good, How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

"As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for the living God, when shall I come and see the face of God?"

"Like new-born babes, long for the pure mild of the Word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted of the kindness of the Lord."

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit;"

The Word reveals God's thoughts, God's loves, and God's will for our lives. You will not grow to know Him more fully unless you are immersed in the Word. Healthy Christians are hungry Christians. Healthy Christians are daily being transformed into His image.

The Necessity of Repentance

Jesus said: "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Genuine faith requires a change of heart--a change in the things you love; a change of mind--a change in the way you think and a change in the things you meditate on; and a change of direction--a change in one's purpose from pleasing self to serving others and thereby pleasing Him. If no change has occurred, no repentance is evident . . .
The Savior said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

No growth. No life.

Blessed

Regeneration: God has made me who was dead in my sins, alive with Christ.
Justification: God has taken away my sin and replaced it with His Son's righteousness.
Redemption: Christ has paid the full price to purchase me out of enslavement to sin and to free me to seek first the kingdom of God.
Propitiation: Christ sacrifice atoned for all my sin by bearing the wrath of God that was rightfully mine to bear.
Sanctification: The Spirit is daily transforming me back into the image of God; setting me apart to be holy because He is holy.
Mercy: God's mercy guarantees that I will never receive the condemnation and punishment that I so undeniably deserve.
Inheritance: God has made me a join-heir with Christ.

Grace: All of these riches are mine eternally because it was the sovereign pleasure of God to give them to me even though I could never merit one of them for a second of eternity."
"Celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings eternally!!!"

Abel

"It was because of his faith that Abel made a better sacrifice to God than Cain, and he had evidence that God looked upon him as a righteous man, whose gifts He could accept. And though Cain killed him, yet by his faith he still speaks to us today."

What does Abel say to us today?

Faith is necessary to pleasing God.
Faith--that God is and that He is worth seeking--gives understanding.
The sacrifice of the righteous man is well-pleasing in His sight.
The faithful should expect acts of animosity from the self-righteous.
There are consequences: Adam and Eve understood "you will surely die." Cain understood that sin separates, that the eyes of the Lord are everywhere beholding the evil and the good, that ignoring God's plea for repentance and letting sin fester in one's heart is catastrophically destructive. Abel discovered that death is the doorway to life. He was the first to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
You can kill the "messenger" but the message still speaks. Forever.
God rewards the faithful. Think of how long God has been using Abel's testimony to reach out to men.