Seasons

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: KJB

The Value of Trials

 

1 Peter 1:3-9

 

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,” 1 Peter 1:6. 

 

President Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat” (The Strenuous Life, April 10, 1899).

 

The Christ follower is a person who knows something of victory and defeat. It takes great humility to admit you are incapable of saving yourself, but it is necessary to die to self to live for Christ. When we enter into relationship with God through faith in Christ, we are guaranteed ultimate victory based on what Christ has done on Calvary. In the mean time, however, there are trials, struggles, temptations and persecutions. God allows us to go through these trials because they test the genuineness of our faith. Like gold purified in the fire, we should allow our faith to be purified by the trials we encounter. Trials and tribulations remind us of the cost of pursuing Christ and that God is our only hope and satisfaction. We may weep and wail temporarily, but we should never forget the victory that awaits us at the end of the road. “Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies” (Psalm 108:13).

 

 

JUST A THOUGHT

 

Will you trust God in your trials today?

 

 

Mark Clements