Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Why The Righteous Suffer

1 Peter 1:3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Our faith is being tested.  Faith is of greater worth than gold.  Do you need a miracle in your life?  It will require faith.  Do you need prayers answered?  It will require faith.  We are saved by grace through faith.

In this age of apostasy, we hear all about a one dimensional god.  That is the god the Babylonian preachers tell us about.  He is the grace only god, who offers free unconditional salvation for the price of a 10 second teary eyed alter call.  We are told that our Lord is grace and love only.  We do not hear anything about righteousness, judgement or wrath.  Our God is a God of grace and love AND righteousness, judgement and wrath.  We serve a multidimensional God, not some soft puff vanilla sugar daddy in the sky.  He is a God of wrath, judgement and repayment for lawlessness (along with everything else He is).

In His righteousness He has ordained us to suffer for our faith so we can also be rewarded for it.  This writer believes the Lord does not appoint us to a single moment of suffering that does not have some greater eternal purpose that far outweighs the suffering we endure now.  To put this in perspective, consider even someone who endures a lifetime of suffering, lets say 70 years of it.  On the day that believer stands before the Lord in paradise, with their heart trying to beat its way out of their chest with the joy and incredible pleasure of it all, will that person for a moment even blink at the suffering they endured on earth?  Compare an eternity of ecstatic joy to 70 years of so of suffering.  Everything compare against eternity is nothing.  Eternity is a long long LONG time and that is the length of time we are appointed to enjoy paradise once we have passed the test.

We are in the test right now.  Our faith is the passport into heaven.  We BELIEVE which is why we are called believers.  Our faith can move mountains right here right now.  This writer can say this with confidence because I have seen mountains moved.  The Lord has allowed me to see many miracles so I can testify to you with zero doubt that everything that has been written is true and can be trusted to the uttermost.

Matt 77“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

These Words above (Matt 7:7-8) are not just words, they are power and they are truth.  What does it take to take delivery of the above promises?  FAITH and patience.  The Lord delivers on His promises, that is a fact.  He also likes to wait in order to test our faith, that is also a fact.  Who likes to wait?  Nobody that I know but it is a pre-requisite to take delivery of the promises.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through
faith and patience inherit what has been promised. 

This has been written to you today to encourage you to hold onto your faith which is worth more than everything in this world put together.  We will inherit eternity, paradise AND answers right here on earth through our faith.  Thanks be to God.

grace and peace