Day 04 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4 Additional reading: Psalm...
“So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength) life.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:10
Romans 8:17-22 (AMPC)
17 And if we are {His} children, then we are {His} heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ {sharing His inheritance with Him}; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.
18 {But what of that?} For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred on us!
19 For {even the whole} creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known {waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship}.
20 For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it—{yet} with the hope
21 That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption {and gain an entrance} into the glorious freedom of God’s children.
22 We know that the whole creation {of irrational creatures} has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now.
What now? Take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses? Is this a misquote in the Bible? Why would God tell us to ‘Take pleasure’ in these things? This is a scripture verse which describes a mature believer. It takes someone with great faith to see negative situations not as problems, but as opportunities!
Our weaknesses and times of suffering are opportunities for us to put our faith in God and trust Him to do a work on our behalf! It is only though faith that we can honestly say, “Lord, when I am weak, then I am strong!” Because we aren’t relying on our own human strength to get us through, but on God’s supernatural strength to carry us through and to bring us victory!
Our responsibility is to see situations through eyes of faith, and to put our trust in our Savior! And to always, always, always, “for the sake of Christ” give God all the glory, so that His Name will be glorified as a testimony and witness to everyone around us.
Learn to see things not as they are in the natural, but as they will be by faith!
