What follows is a teaching I have prepared for my church, but it is bursting out of me, I just want to share this with someone. I feel as if there is something here God wants someone to hear. So I have my notes here. I have not changed the wording or linked all the Bible passages as I normally would before posting it on my Salt & Light page. I hope you get something from it.

Let’s begin by reading 1 Peter 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
 
Various trials… I would say we have seen our share of various trials recently. Yet, at least for me this church, even in its own turmoil has held me together, has been the comfort of God for me. You have wept with me, held your arms around me, and rejoiced with me.
I have not had the happiest couple of months. Losing my mother was extraordinarily difficult. It did not help that when I should have been processing that loss and the pain that accompanied it therefore healing, that it felt like a barrage of calamities hit me one after the other. I know that I was not the only person in this church to experience difficult times. Separately and together, we have had various trials hit us, we have suffered separately and together. I know that the enemy is afraid of Jesus Christ in us, he is afraid of what we can do and who we can be in the Holy Spirit.
There are a number of ways people can deal with tribulations like that.  We could let them defeat us, lay down and say, “you win.” We let the bad circumstances overcome us and become ineffective Christians or wounded self-pitying people. We could, like the world, blame God for the atrocities the enemy is performing all over this broken world.
We could try and fight the enemy, looking for solutions to the problems that pop up. We could run around looking for loans, suing people to get “justice,” or wounding those who have wounded us. But, that is us forgetting the goal, running a race aimlessly or beating the air like a boxer with his eyes closed. That is us fighting the problems, not standing in the faith and promise of God, not remembering our hope, that imperishable inheritance.
Or we could keep our eyes on Jesus, we could remember the goal, seek God, glorify the Lord and bring as many people with us to eternal life as possible. We can hold on to the hope of Christ and rejoice, even in midst of the sorrow. We can believe, truly really believe and so rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. We can listen to the voice of God and do what He tells us to do, even if what He says is, “Rest,” or “Forgive. Vengeance is mine.”
Suffering can result in us turning inward on ourselves and living in the pain the enemy wants us to live in, crippling us in the kingdom. But it can result in greater things, it can result in great glory to God. It can result in us becoming powerful and effective Christians.
In my own suffering, I felt a little like Job. I was not in a self-pity mode, but I reached a point where I was afraid to say, “At least it’s not worse,” because I felt like when I said it, the devil said, “It can be! Let me show you!” But, I stayed in communion with God, even when it wasn’t as passionate as it could have or should have been. He kept reminding me of Genesis 50:20 when Joseph explained to his brothers how and why he forgave them for what they had done to him as a teenager. “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
That is the hope we hold onto, that God will bring good out of all the stuff that happens to us. Paul reminds of it in Romans 8:28-29 as well. It is very good that we are made more like Jesus and other good comes out of it. God wants good for us, He wants salvation for everyone. That doesn’t make the tribulations any less tumultuous, but it does help us to trudge on through them, to obey God, and to eventually look back and even rejoice for what came out of it. The faith that God will work good out of evil and will work good for those who love Him can give us the reason to praise Him even when we are hurting and don’t know what else to say. I can say, “thank you Lord that some of my family and friends got to hear that my mother loved you.” I can praise the Lord because I know I will see my mother again in the resurrection and I know she is with Jesus completely at peace and joy, all her doubts vanished, all her pain gone. I can praise God because through the church being forced to find a new place to meet, we have come to know that we are the church, one body who loves each other very much, who loves Jesus very much and who will continue regardless of a home. That we will be a very strong core to a growing body who will glorify the Lord and impact His Kingdom in ways the devil never could have imagined. The evil he meant for us, God meant for good and to bring about that many people will be saved.
Then my sister encouraged me with some verses from Job. Job 5:8-11 reads,
“As for me, I would seek God,
    and to God would I commit my cause,
9 who does great things and unsearchable,
    marvelous things without number:
10 he gives rain on the earth
    and sends waters on the fields;
11 he sets on high those who are lowly,
    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.
 
Those verses and her prayers ignited me. I knew I needed to seek God even more during this time. I needed to cry out to Him and know He is omnipotent and that He loves perfectly and steadfastly.  I did. I read Psalm 42 because I completely understood what David meant when he described his soul as downcast. It’s so much more than sadness. David said his tears were his food day and night. He said that his soul was in turmoil. That is how I felt. I wanted to stop hurting. I, like David wanted to feel like I had felt in the past at a high point of faith and my walk with Jesus.
What was David’s answer? He said,
“As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God”
He said his need for God was a desperation, an absolute requirement for his life, the way a deer requires water.
He said, that he remembered the praise when he poured his soul out to God. And He said in verse 8,
“By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.”
He ends the Psalm in verse 11 with,
“Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.”
 
David turned to God and God covered him in His love and reminded him of the hope and salvation He gave him. I did too. I finally turned fully to God.
We can’t expect to stand firm in Christ if we are not seeking God with the desperation of that panting thirsty deer. We can’t expect to resist the devil if we are inviting him to engage with us by trying to fight him and wrestle with him rather than crying out to God and letting the LORD do great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number as the book of Job reminds us, He does.
My sadness did not magically disappear, but my hope grew and my joy grew. God showed me that a person can be in deep grief, but still have joy. The more I spoke to God, the more I cried out to Him instead of an empty room, the more I looked for the Lord, the more hope and joy I had, regardless of my circumstances.
And then I saw God moving to help me, I saw Him shining His favor on me, improving some of the circumstances that had piled on me.
How does my crying out to God, how does us putting our faith in God rather than ourselves glorify the Lord? People are watching. People are watching our responses and reactions. They see if we dig way down and flex our own muscles or we stand firm in faith and ask the Lord to be our strength, provider, comforter, counselor, and savior. It is not about changing circumstances. Our circumstances can improve but we can remain bereft or we can grow farther away from God as we become what the world sees as strong. Paul was harassed by Satan who had given him something he described as a thorn in his flesh. Paul turned to the LORD and begged Him to take it away. God chose not to change the circumstances, instead He changed His servant.
2 Corinthians 12:7-12 reads,
 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
The Lord’s power, His omnipotent unimaginable strength is made perfect, that is it is shown and expressed in our weakness. God can do it all and it is shown best when displayed through our imperfection, our inability, our frailty. It is His strength, not ours that brings people to Jesus. It is God’s strength that allowed Him to lay His life down on the cross and raise up again to defeat death and sin. He empowers us and gives us strength to rise above our circumstances. Paul wrote to the Philippians and said in chapter 4 verses 12-13
12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
When we operate in His strength and not our own, the circumstances do not have to bring us down. But He can and does do great things for us. He does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number!
He will give us the church building He showed us. He will do it in a way, none of us imagined. He can do so much more than any of us can think up. He can and will and has provided for us again and again. He heals! He anoints! He brings people to Himself even through the evil campaigns of the enemy.
And what about the good that comes out of the evil that the enemy tries to work against us? Sometimes we don’t know about it. We don’t know how we were protected from some awful thing. Sometimes it takes time to come about. Scholars guess Joseph spent about thirteen years or so in prison for a crime he did not commit. It was two years from the time he interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer and baker to the time he was asked to serve Pharaoh. It was the gifts and wisdom God had given Joseph that saved Egypt and his family.
But there are many times when God let’s us see the good that came from the thwarted attack of the enemy, the weapons that tried to take us down and maybe even looked like they hit the target. I can tell you that I saw how many people I have that love and care about me, my good friends, my church, my family. God sends those people to be His arms hugging and holding you, His comfort as The Holy Spirit operates through His people as we obey the “one anothers” out of love for Jesus and each other. God sent Job’s friends to comfort him during what had to be horrific and unimaginable sorrow. His friends weren’t perfect, they proved that when they spoke out of themselves rather than the Spirit of God. But Job’s faithful response, changed his friends lives and gave them an encounter with the LORD of Lords.
And often, the good that comes from it is the transformation of our character to the image of Christ. Romans 5:3-5 describes it this way,
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 When we’re suffering, not only does the Lord make us more like Jesus but if we choose to pay attention, we can be very aware of the awesome love He has for us. He pours His love into us through the Holy Spirit. He builds us up and He lets us feel that amazing love He is, fill us up with it and even helps us to love others with better with His agape love.
For me, the peace, the comfort, the love all came when I cried out to God, when I sought Him and asked for His help. The joy came when I praised Him for being awesome and good even when my circumstances were terrible.
We can feel so alone in suffering, in trials, and difficulties, but that is a lie from the enemy. Remember God’s promise, “I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We might ignore God, but He will not leave us, and He will not ignore us. He will not remove His hand from our lives unless we want Him to do that.
One of my favorite names for God is, The God who Sees Me. This was what Hagar called him when she was so hurt by how she was treated by Sarai and Abram after she became pregnant. God pursued her into the wilderness, comforted her and gave her the promise of her son, Ishmael, which means God hears.
We can cry out to Him and know He hears us. We know He sees us, and We know He has compassion for us, and we know that God loves us perfectly because He is love.
And we have more than Hagar’s promise of God hears, we have Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us! We are definitely never alone. And if we are part of a Jesus following, Bible believing, Holy Spirit led church, we also know that the people around us can empathize, that the people around us love us because we are called and empowered to love one another as Jesus loved us. That has been proved in us again and again. We have rejoiced together, we have wept together, we have walked and grown together. That kind of love, the love of God and the love He gives us for one another is what gives us joy regardless of the circumstances.
John 15:7-12
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
 
I praise the Lord. I praise Him, not because the world is honkey dory, but because He is God. Because He is God with me, Awesome Mighty God, Lord God of Hosts. The world doesn’t need the lie that life is a rose garden if you’re saved, the world needs the truth that God is always God. They need to know that He prayed for them in the garden of Gethsemane and that He died for them and resurrected for them. They need to know the hope of eternal life. I praise God because He is I Am.
The world sees the way we respond to problems. They can call us stupid or apathetic, tell us religion is a crutch, or offer advice about what they would do in our circumstances. Their response will not affect or change our lives,; But maybe they can take notice and see how good God is and start a journey to Christ and let their life be changed by Jesus, who gives us strength to do all things.
The first and most important thing we can do when we are being attacked, when we are facing various trials is cry out to God and let Him be God! If we abide in Jesus, whatever we ask will be given to us! We cry out to God. We can listen and obey. We can move as He orders and rest as He orders. We can and should put on the full armor of God letting salvation, righteousness, truth, and faith protect us and wielding the very powerful sword of the Sprit, the Word of God. Every piece of the armor is about Jesus. Jesus is our Salvation. He gives us our righteousness. He gives us our Faith. He is the Truth. He is the Word of God. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”
You have the Spirit of God in you! He adores you that much that He chose to live in you. Live in the Spirit rather than doing what the world says you ought to do in your circumstances. Cry out to God and obey Him, submit to His will. James 4:2-7 says it like this,
You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
You don’t have to do more than merely resist, the word for resist is antistēte, it means to set against and withstand.
The same word is used in 1 Peter 5:9 let’s read 1 Peter 5:6-11
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Once again we humble ourselves, we put ourselves under His mighty hand, we cast all our cares on Him and we resist.
What does it mean to resist, to withstand to stand firm or stand against? Exodus 14:13-14 describes a bit about resisting the enemy. When the Israelites reached the Red Sea and they looked and saw the Egyptian army closing in on them, they were afraid, but Moses spoke for the Lord and said, “And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
So, today whatever your circumstances, trials, anxieties, or sorrows I encourage you to cry out to God and put on the whole armor of God. Let’s humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand asking Him to fight for us; let’s resist, stand against the devil firm in our faith that God is mighty and He has called us to His eternal glory. He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us! He is I Am! Jehovah, Lord God Almighty!

If you are a Christian or have Christian friends then I do not doubt that at some point, some person attempted to comfort or encourage you with Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
When I was younger, I had no idea what that verse meant. I imagine there are many new Christians or less spiritually mature, or those who do not have the chance to read the Bible on their own who are in the same boat I was in. What does it mean? Out of context, the verse gave me a picture of a genie, using the ill-fortune of one man for the benefit of another. I did not find comfort in that. So today, as I begin a series attempting to answer the tough questions, I’ll try to answer this one, “What is the good in Romans 8:28.”
First then, let’s put the verse back into context. Romans 8:24-30 reads,
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
What is the hope for which we were saved? It is our future glory, our redemption with Christ becoming fully His when it is revealed that we are the sons of God (Romans 8:18-23). To put it more plainly, one day, Jesus will return to gather the saved to Himself. All the dead Christians will resurrect and those still living will join them as they are raised up in the air to meet Jesus. In an instant, every one of us will be transformed, we will be made perfect and as the old earth is destroyed a new earth will replace it. That new earth will have a city called New Jerusalem and there, we will live as one with Jesus and one another (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Revelation 21,) Revelation 21:3-4 reads,
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
 
That hope is not only for the future, it sustains us now and it begins now here on this earth. We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ and that is the good that all things work toward. The more we are like Jesus, the more God is glorified. Let me interrupt myself a moment to explain what glorifying God is. It is a special sort of praise and honor to God, one in which the world can see a glimpse of the God we know and love, the God who knows and loves all of us. It means we reflect God, we look and act like Jesus because the Holy Spirit indwells us and is day by day transforming us to be more and more like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 in the Message explains glory this way,
7-8 The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. Moses’ face as he delivered the tablets was so bright that day (even though it would fade soon enough) that the people of Israel could no more look right at him than stare into the sun. How much more dazzling, then, the Government of Living Spirit?
9-11 If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one. If that makeshift arrangement impressed us, how much more this brightly shining government installed for eternity?
12-15 With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there.
16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
 
He does not save you and then leave you as you were, He saves you and changes you. He works hard in you and we cooperate with Him in that work. Philippians 2:9-13 describes it like this,
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
 
If all things work together for our good, then how can the very worst circumstances possibly be for our good? Consider this, when is it that a person is more likely to turn to God in desperate need? Is it when she has a full belly, big bank account, perfect health, and plenty of friends? Or is it when she is suffering? Our suffering can work for our good, if we allow it to do so. James wrote,
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:2-8).
Paul wrote to the Romans something very similar,
 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:3-5).
As we mature, it is not only the bad situations that should bring glory to God through our transformation but all conditions. In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul puts it this way,
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Whatever this broken world brings our way, be it good or bad, The Holy Spirit can use it for our good, our transformation and His glory. Let me leave you with this reminder from 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, this time in the English Standard Version
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
​

Psalm 88
There are times that the suffering we experience feels as if it has been with us forever and will last forever. I think many of us could recount tales of woe to one another that might astonish the other. If we were to actually share our burdens with one another, we would realize we are not as alone in the depths of anguish. When we open our eyes and look past our own pain, we can see that there is no one among us who is not suffering. If we ignore the lie that we are alone and understand all of us suffer, then we can bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
This Psalm it titled and subtitled,
I Cry Out Day and Night Before You
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
The psalmist was Heman the Ezrahite, one of the Sons of Korah. It is a psalm which expresses deep affliction and grief. Heman laid out his pain to God frankly and genuinely. There is no happy ending to the maskil, no unicorns or twinkly smiles. But there is still hope to be found in it. Verses 1-2 read,
O LORD, God of my salvation;
    I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you;
    incline your ear to my cry!
 
The name the psalmist uses here for God is Yahweh or Jehovah, it is God’s ultimate name, His name for Himself, I Am. The name refers to His covenant relationship to us. Though Heman was in distress, he still had faith. We know he had faith because he was praying, because he wasn’t giving up, and because of how he addressed the Lord. Heman remembered God’s covenant with him and knew God remembered it with him. What is the promise the psalmist kept in mind? What is it that kept him going? The promise that keeps me going through the worst is found often in scripture, it is written in Deuteronomy 31:8.
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
 
Jesus said it again when He was about to ascend to Heaven in Matthew 28:20
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age

So Heman could pray because he knew his prayers were being heard. Do you know your prayers are not bouncing off the ceiling, or falling on deaf ears? God hears you. He doesn’t ignore your sorrow. Heman prayed honestly. There is no reason to hide our feelings to God. We can be completely open with Him. Being honest with God allows Him to reveal the truth to us and walk in His will and His way by taking the steps He guides us toward in our conversations. If I’m busy pretending that I am okay with my situation, how will I hear my Lord comfort me? If I am lying to myself as I tell God that everything is honky dory, how will I hear His direction? Purge the lies from your prayers and be honest. There are no masks necessary between you and your Maker and Savior.
James 4:8 reads,
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded
 
Verses 3-7 show the psalmists candor.
For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
    I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead,
    like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
    for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit,
    in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
    and you overwhelm me with all your waves.  Selah
He says not only is he dying but the people around him treat him as if he is already dead. He confesses he has no strength and may as well be in his grave already.  Most shockingly, he accuses God of being the one who put him there. We know that God doesn’t want us in pain, but we also know that God does allow pain and suffering for various reasons. For the most part our suffering, illness, and pain is from Satan. Remember he is a creation of God and subject to Him. We can see this point illustrated in Paul’s description of the thorn in his flesh.
 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
God allows Satan to send woes on us. What Satan means for evil and what people mean for harm, God uses for good (Genesis 50:20). Whatever Heman’s troubles were, they began in his youth and had remained with him (Verse 15). He had suffered for so long and he saw no end in sight, but he cried out to God day and night. He leaned on the Lord and though he had no strength, he could keep going. Verses 8-12 read,
You have caused my companions to shun me;
    you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9     my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
    I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
    Do the departed rise up to praise you?  Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
    or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
    or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
 
The psalmist was deeply sad. He felt trapped in his pain and exhausted from sorrow. He was having trouble seeing anything except his grief. Yet, he still prayed, not only with his words but with his posture; he spread out his hands to God. Look how honest he was with God. He said, “Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed praise you?” He was saying if I’m dead, what good can you do through me? How can I praise you and tell anyone how great you are if I’m dead? Even as he cried out his anguish and frustration to God, he still declared God’s steadfast love, faithfulness, miracles, and righteousness. He said, ‘how can I tell the world about your steadfast love and faithfulness if I’m dead or considered an abomination? People can’t see your wonders or righteousness in my desolation.’
Heman was not afraid to be honest with God. I have no doubt that God answered Heman. I think that verses 10-12 show that God was included in the conversation. As Heman cried out, it was God who said, “Your suffering is showing my steadfast love, faithfulness, wonders, and righteousness. You are not an abomination to me. You are not dead. My grace is sufficient for you. You are not alone. I am with you to the end of the age.”
​
A few weeks ago, I was awake very early and spending time with my Lord in nature. I freely let it all go. I cried and cried to Him about my pain and illness. Parts of my prayer echoed this Psalm. I had suffered for so long and felt like I was very close to death. I asked God why He had not healed me. Just then a sparrow flew into my path. Immediately Luke 12:6-7 came to my mind,
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
 
My Father didn’t stop there, He then brought Matthew 6:26 to me.
 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which led to Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
In that little sparrow, God spoke to me and said, “Don’t worry; just keep seeking me. I’m taking care of you. I will always be with you.” My cries turned to thanks. My fears turned to faith. If I had not been willing to be completely open, God would not have been able to allay my weakness with His strength.
Did my health get restored? No. I was still in pain, still weak and still sick. My world didn’t suddenly become a rose garden. My world remained as it was but my perspective changed. I haven’t stopped asking the Lord to heal me. I haven’t stopped suffering this terrible pain and frailty. Neither did Heman. Verses 13-18 read,
But I, O LORD, cry to you;
    in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
    Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
    I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
    your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
    they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
    my companions have become darkness.
 
This psalm doesn’t end with fat baby angels playing harps on fluffy clouds. It ends with Heman’s pain and loneliness. God doesn’t always take away the pain, He doesn’t always have those we’ve lost forgive us and restore failed relationships. But He does always remain with us. He does always take care of us when we seek Him and His will.
Believer, I know you’re suffering. I know you wonder if it will ever end. The Father will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus is with you, always. The Holy Spirit is in you; His awesome power is at work in you. You have hope. You have eternity waiting for you. Jesus described our eternal home this way in Revelation 21:3-4,
Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

​1 Peter 4
Yesterday we read about how we are different from the world and that difference is expressed by how we treat people. Today, we see how that difference is exhibited by our behavior. Verses 1-3 read,
Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. 3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.
Jesus suffered so much and it was for our benefit. Our own suffering, which for most of us will never be as bad as Christ’s can also be for our benefit. We can learn from it and we develop the character of Christ because of it. Romans 5:1-5 says it like this,
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
 
We cannot let Jesus sacrifice on the Cross and His victory over death and sin mean nothing to us by not letting his suffering or own transform us. The past is the past. God no longer sees our sins we He looks at us, He sees us as new righteous creations. There is no sin in Christ. Christ was sinless, He took our sin away, and we no longer have sin in us or on us. 1 John 3:4-6 reads,
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
 
Although we can and sadly often do act the way we did before we knew Jesus, we do not have to be compelled to sin any longer. Even though we may do things that are considered sins, we are not under the law any longer so theoretically nothing we do is sin. But there are things which produce goodness and things which do not. There are practices, behaviors, and attitudes which exalt God and there are those which exalt ourselves. 1 Corinthians 6:12 says it this way,
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
 
We are just not the same as we used to be. Exalting ourselves and feeding our basal desires just doesn’t hold the same charm anymore. The world will undoubtedly take note of the difference and they will not like it. The old friends we used to party with, won’t recognize the new person we’ve become and they will want their old friend back. Why? Because our new desire to be good shows them that their actions are not so good. Verses 4-7 read,
 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
 
Judgement Day is coming. They will be judged. But our walk with Jesus in the Spirit can speak volumes to the lost. We can tell them the wonderful news of Jesus Christ and they can be saved!  But if we act the way we acted before we knew Jesus, if we sin the way we used to, they won’t see Jesus as real and they won’t see His power and saving grace.
Living by grace doesn’t mean sinning as if there is no such thing as law, it means exercising the power of God within us and living the holy righteous lives we can because God is able to transform us. Verses 8-11 read,
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
 
Grace is wonderful and miraculous. We are not yet perfect but we have been perfected, even while God is still making us perfect. The law is no longer something we follow to be called good. It is part of us, written onto our hearts, so that we understand the crux of it which is reconciliation with God. We are free to love as God loves. Hebrews 10:14-18 reads,
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
    after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
    and write them on their minds,”
17 then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
 We will make mistakes but if we strive to act out of God’s love, we will not make those mistakes as often. Even when we do, love will cover the mistake with grace. People need God’s grace and we have it! We can show them His marvelous grace through exercising the gifts we’ve been given. We use those gifts for our benefit, the church’s benefit, and the world’s benefit. If we don’t use them, we are not serving Jesus Christ as we could, we are serving ourselves and hiding the Gospel from those who desperately need it.
We will suffer. We do suffer. And there are different kinds of suffering. Sometimes we go through awful things because we acted in certain ways and we have to experience the consequences of those choices. That suffering can discipline us. But sometimes our suffering is undeserved. Sometimes it is because we are standing up for Jesus, walking in the Spirit, and refusing to deny Christ by giving in to sin. That suffering can also teach us but in addition it glorifies God and points the world to Jesus. Verses 12-19 read,
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If the righteous is scarcely saved,
    what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
19 Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
 
Jesus suffered for our sake and the sake of every person on this planet. He was lifted up and hung on a cross as the world tried to humiliate Him. But the curse they tried to inflict on Jesus became a blessing and honor for us. So when people slander you, try and hurt you, or try to shame you undeservedly, remember Jesus will be glorified. Rejoice, you are being honored and your suffering can be a blessing to those living under the curse of death. Rejoice because the trials you are suffering are making you more like Jesus. If your life is changing to look like Jesus, then maybe you ought to question if you are walking in Christ. If your suffering isn’t reshaping your character into Jesus’ character, then perhaps you ought to question if The Holy Spirit is in you. Judgement Day is coming for all of us.
 

​James 1:1-18
God doesn't send suffering to you, but He does allow you to suffer, to go through trials, and experience tribulations. There is not a person among us who has not suffered. There is probably not a person, who is not right now going through some difficult situation, has not just emerged from one, or is not about to enter one. Believer, you are not alone. Even when your suffering seems worse than anything around you, even when you think no one can or will understand, even when you give in to the lie to isolate yourself in it, you are not alone. The church, your brothers and sisters imbued with the Spirit of Jesus Christ are there, waiting to walk beside you and bear the burden with you and needing you to bear the burden with them. God is with you too. He has chosen to indwell you, to abide in you and He wants you to abide (stay and live) in Him.
One of the reasons that the Gospel of Christ spread so far, even in ancient times was because Christians were persecuted very badly. In order to save their lives, livelihoods, and lifestyles of faith, they had to leave Jerusalem and other cities. They had to leave behind family, friends, and the only faith they had ever known. This terrible maltreatment, discrimination, and oppression led to the scattering of the church, especially the Jewish Christians who could be arrested and killed for not keeping the Pharisaical law.  Verses 1-4 begin James letter to the dispersed church.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,
To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:
Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
In other words, go ahead and choose to be happy over the various trials you go through. Those trials, whatever they are cause you to exercise your faith. Faith allows you to persevere with resoluteness, to be even instead of not agitated, troubled, or despondent. As you walk faithfully, the Holy Spirit is conforming you to Jesus’ perfect image. That is His will for us (1 Thessalonians 4:3). What a good thing! Faith in God carries you through and grows with each step you take. What is faith? The author of Hebrews defines it this way in Hebrews 11:1-3,
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the people of old received their commendation. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
God spoke and created the Universe. What He speaks, is. His word is His will (desire) manifested (come to be). So we can have faith that God’s will for us will happen. God wants good things for us! He wants our sanctification. He wants us to glorify Him. He wants us to know Him, to be in a close relationship with Him. Hosea 6:6 is one of my favorite verses.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
 
 
Zechariah 13:9 reads,
And I will put this third into the fire,
    and refine them as one refines silver,
    and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
    and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people’;
    and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’
Believer, He wants these things for us, but He will never force us. He will never sanctify us against our will. If we are not willing to look at our trials with His wisdom and grow our faithfulness, steadfastness, and character, then He will not make us. Verses 5-11 read,
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
If we are not willing to look at the situation from a godly perspective or even ask God to show s His perspective, we will not and cannot develop the perseverance that comes from faith, because we won’t have be choosing to look through faith from God’s wise point of view. When we suffer, when we are brought low, God is really bringing us up to His image. But if we refuse and instead want to mourn the worldly things we’ve lost or pursue those worldly things instead of the kingdom of Heaven, God will let us, but we’ll fade away with no impact on the kingdom, no change in us, and no treasures in Heaven. That is why it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle; because the rich man doesn’t want to give up his comfort for suffering (Mark 10:23-25). Faith assures us that whatever we give up for the Lord will be replaced a hundred times over. In Mark 10:29-31 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.  But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Faith reminds us that we have eternal life. It is that hope, that knowledge of what God has done, is doing, and will do that allows us to be happy, to choose joy through the hard times and remain joyful and faithful through the easier times. Verse 12 reads,
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
So many of our trials, so much of our suffering is the result of our own bad choices. Choosing to be joyful through our suffering does not mean believing that God sent you temptation in order to cause you to sin so that you can suffer. When people sin against you, He lets it happen for your discipline, but He doesn’t tempt people to sin, regardless who they are. Verses 13-15 read,
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
I have heard people say and even believed in the past that God sends tests, that He wants me to suffer, be ill, poor, or whatever. Oh believer, God does not rain evil down on you. He will use it for your good and sanctification (Romans 8:28-30), but He doesn’t send evil, there is no evil in Him. He sends good because He is good. Verses 16-18 read,
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
God is steadfast. God never changes. He is good and He is bringing us into His image, making us the best of His creation.
Believer, I know you suffer. God knows you suffer. But you can choose to be joyful through it because you know that it is making you like Him, complete, perfect, and the best He has (and what He has is wonderful and endlessly good). I know you suffer but take joy and if you can’t ask God to show you the situation through His eyes. God wants good for you.

Deuteronomy 32
God wants us to succeed. He wants us to do well. He knows we are prone to sin, to take the easy way or the flesh gratifying way. But He gives us the tools to make the right choices. Ancient Israel did not have the Holy Spirit indwelled in each person. God put His Spirit on a few and the rest were meant to trust Him and follow Him via these leaders and prophets. But they were given the Law, the priests, and the prophets. They were given the feasts and they were given prayers and songs.
In yesterday’s devotional The Lord had told Moses to write the song He would give him and teach it to Israel so that they would sing it through the generations and remember what He had done for them and not turn to idolatry as they were inclined to do (Deuteronomy 31:19-22). Chapter 32 is the song.
Deuteronomy 31:30 reads,
Then Moses spoke the words of this song until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:
Verses 1-3 read,
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
    and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop as the rain,
    my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
    and like showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
    ascribe greatness to our God!”
 
When the song was sung both The Lord and the people were called to hear it. God was the audience to the obedience of the singer and the listeners. Israel was to listen and learn from the words, the words written by The Lord Himself to proclaim His greatness, to reveal His character to people so that they might avoid sin and thus avoid the consequences their sin would bring.
How often do you think, “If only I had listened…?” Would your teenaged self have skipped a huge amount of turmoil if you had heeded your parents’ warnings? Would you have avoided much of your suffering had you heeded the words of God? How much sin do we commit when we choose to ignore the counsel of The Holy Spirit and the wisdom of the Word of God?
Verses 4-6 remind us of God’s perfect justice.
“The Rock, his work is perfect,
    for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
    just and upright is he.
5 They have dealt corruptly with him;
    they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
    they are a crooked and twisted generation.
6 Do you thus repay the Lord,
    you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your father, who created you,
    who made you and established you?”
God is perfect Justice and He made the way for Israel to be forgiven of sin and be counted as righteous. But they perverted worship, they perverted the sacrifices, and they sinned. It came to the point that God could no longer consider Israel separate and holy because although they venerated themselves as His chosen nation, they were worshipping idols and laws above the One True God. They forgot God in their religion. This song was to remind them God created them, He called Himself their Father. They could repent and turn to Him or they could suffer for their sin. It reminds believers too, not to leave the Lord out of religion.
. God can make a holy nation and Chosen people from anyone or anything. It was His choice to make Israel His own. It was His choice to make you and me His own.
The Lord commanded Israel to remember what their ancestors, the first singers and hearers of this song had gone through and what He had done for them. He chose them. He called them. He gave them their identity as His own. Verses 7-14 read,
“Remember the days of old;
    consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you,
    your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind,
he fixed the borders of the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of God.
9 But the Lord's portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him in a desert land,
    and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
    he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
    that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
    bearing them on its pinions,
12 the Lord alone guided him,
    no foreign god was with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the land,
    and he ate the produce of the field,
and he suckled him with honey out of the rock,
    and oil out of the flinty rock.
14 Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock,
    with fat of lambs,
rams of Bashan and goats,
    with the very finest of the wheat--
    and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.”
God’s provision is rarely just the bare necessities; it is full and complete. The Promised Land flowed with milk and honey, it didn’t trickle. God pours out provision and blessings. He is the One Who Overcomes our obstacles, He is the One Who Gives, and He is the One Who Lavishes. We are the ones who look at our success and prosperity and forget that it could only have come from The Lord. Enough success and we somehow forget God and take credit for it ourselves.
Those people who write books about how to get rich and stay rich, how to succeed in business, or how to make friends and influence people, they think they are the ones responsible for their success and so they think they can make money by sharing their wisdom and skills. The secret to success is not learning how Mr. Moneybags got rich; it is in remembering who The Lord God is. When we forget to give God the credit, the glory for us and who we have become, we get lazy. We forget God. We turn to idols like money, ourselves, and other religions. That happened to Israel time and again. It happens to so many of us repeatedly. We forget where our strength comes from and think we can do anything without The Lord because we are strong, have great resources, wisdom, or whatever. Verses 15-18 say it this way,
“But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked;
    you grew fat, stout, and sleek;
then he forsook God who made him
    and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods;
    with abominations they provoked him to anger.
17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods,
    to gods they had never known,
to new gods that had come recently,
    whom your fathers had never dreaded.
18 You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you,
    and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”
 
Jeshurun is another name for Israel. It means upright, just and straight. Success made Jeshurun grow from upright, just, and straight to fat, stout, and sleek. That may have looked attractive as her wealth showed, but it made her forsake God; it caused her to scoff at the idea that The Lord was her Salvation and Creator.
Believer, whatever success you enjoy, wealth, wisdom, or spiritual gifts, be careful to remember it is not you, but God. You could never be good enough to be saved. Jesus saved you. You are not the source of the prophesies, good works, wisdom, healing, or evangelism that you perform. The Holy Spirit manifests Himself in you. You couldn’t even have chosen Christ without the Father having called you. Without God, all those things that make you so great are just a harsh and meaningless noise (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
When we choose to turn to ourselves instead of The Lord, He lets us. He will hide His face from us and let us struggle without Him. He wants us to learn to depend on Him, to come back and be the sons and daughters He made us to be. Verses 19-25 read,
“The Lord saw it and spurned them,
    because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters.
20 And he said, ‘I will hide my face from them;
    I will see what their end will be,
for they are a perverse generation,
    children in whom is no faithfulness.
21 They have made me jealous with what is no god;
    they have provoked me to anger with their idols.
So I will make them jealous with those who are no people;
    I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled by my anger,
    and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
    and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;
    I will spend my arrows on them;
24 they shall be wasted with hunger,
    and devoured by plague
    and poisonous pestilence;
I will send the teeth of beasts against them,
    with the venom of things that crawl in the dust.
25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave,
    and indoors terror,
for young man and woman alike,
    the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.”
If prosperity and success make someone fall away from the Lord, then suffering often brings them back to Him. I know many people who only pray when they are at the end of their rope. When they have nothing left to do but cry out to God, that is the only time they talk to Him. Their prayers are one-sided dirges and monologues of grief. But sometimes their desperation begins a relationship and dependence on The Lord. And too often that relationship lasts for only the duration of the suffering. Do you depend on God through good times and bad, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health? Or do you only talk to Him when He is all you have left to turn to?
God can make a whole new nation for Himself, He can take the stones and trees and turn them to a worshipping people. But doing that would mean losing the chance that the sinner will repent. It would mean letting the people he used to exact justice think they were righteous gods. He will never leave us or forsake us, even when we have forsaken Him. Verses 26-27 read,
“I would have said, “I will cut them to pieces;
    I will wipe them from human memory,”
27 had I not feared provocation by the enemy,
    lest their adversaries should misunderstand,
lest they should say, “Our hand is triumphant,
    it was not the Lord who did all this.”’
God loves Israel. God loves ISIS. He loves you and He loves your enemies. He wants the best for you. He wants salvation for each and every person. So often the discipline He uses to bring you back into walking rightly with Him is also being used to call the lost He used to work the discipline. He understands that they don’t have His Holy Spirit and they need to see Him work in you and bless you with his mercy and grace. Maybe they will want that mercy and grace too, and they will call upon His name. Verses 28-33 read,
“For they are a nation void of counsel,
    and there is no understanding in them.
29 If they were wise, they would understand this;
    they would discern their latter end!
30 How could one have chased a thousand,
    and two have put ten thousand to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them,
    and the Lord had given them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock;
    our enemies are by themselves.
32 For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
    and from the fields of Gomorrah;
their grapes are grapes of poison;
    their clusters are bitter;
33 their wine is the poison of serpents
    and the cruel venom of asps”
 
He has given each person the chance to repent. He gave you that opportunity and He gave the lousy neighbor, the one who cut down the tree on your property and whose dog pees in your roses the opportunity. He gives the punished and the punisher the chance to repent and be saved. When someone refuses that gift, God will give them what they deserve. It’s not up to you or me to take revenge. Every person will pay the price, either with her own blood or the blood of Jesus. God’s vengeance is fierce and it will not be pretty or light. It will not be a simple elevator trip to Hell. Hell is not like a biker bar where people will hang out with sinners forever. It will be more horrific than we can imagine. Verses 34-38 read,
“‘Is not this laid up in store with me,
    sealed up in my treasuries?
35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
    and their doom comes swiftly.’
36 For the Lord will vindicate his people
    and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
    and there is none remaining, bond or free.
37 Then he will say, ‘Where are their gods,
    the rock in which they took refuge,
38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices
    and drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you;
    let them be your protection!”
 
You can’t save yourself. Buddha, Mohammed, Baal, Satan, Money, or a bright smile cannot save you. Only the Lord God, Jesus Christ can save. One day every person will realize that Jesus Christ is Lord. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow (Philippians 2:10). Will it be in triumphant worship or in dreadful realization that your god is powerless and bogus? Verse 39-43 read,
“‘See now that I, even I, am he,
    and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
    I wound and I heal;
    and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven
    and swear, As I live forever,
41 if I sharpen my flashing sword
    and my hand takes hold on judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
    and will repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
    and my sword shall devour flesh--
with the blood of the slain and the captives,
    from the long-haired heads of the enemy.’
43 “Rejoice with him, O heavens;[
    bow down to him, all gods,
for he avenges the blood of his children
    and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him
    and cleanses his people's land.”
God is awesome! He is The LORD! Do you know it? Do you need to be reminded? Let His Word shape you before suffering and discipline must teach you. Know who God is now, before The Day of the Lord demonstrates it for you. God’s Word is a gift to us. Believers are indwelled with The Holy Spirit, so that we can understand it, write it on our hearts and live it out for the world. Do not forget who God is or who you are in Him. Verses 44-47 read,
Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun. 45 And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”
 
After Moses taught Israel the song and exhorted them to live by God’s Word, he was reminded that he would not be with them. Moses had to pay the price for his disobedience and trust God to be God for Israel. Verses 48-52,
That very day the Lord spoke to Moses, 49 “Go up this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel for a possession. 50 And die on the mountain which you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his people, 51 because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel. 52 For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.”
​

​Today, I am taking a brief break from reading Deuteronomy to do a rabbit trail study. I realized recently that there was something wrong. I had let my depression take over my mind, heart, and time. So I prayed. Psalm 139:23-24 reads,
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!
Asking The Lord to search our hearts is an important and beneficial discipline that can keep us progressing in our walk with Him. It can help us see areas where we fall short of His example. I listened to My Merciful Lord’s answer, which came quickly and gently. Two passages of scripture come to mind when I think about who Jesus is and who we should be as we mature into His image. One is the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23; the other is the description of love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
 
Asking myself how I compare with these two depictions of Christ reveals to me where my problems lay. So this time, when I asked, God showed me I had lost the joy I should be demonstrating as a fruit of the Spirit. So I asked Him to reveal the source. He said, “You’ve been resentful, because you have envied others. You’ve been exhausted because you have been suffering and instead of turning to me, you relied on yourself, my Darling you do not have the stores to do this alone. Give it to me.”
I did something I do not often do and that is, open the Bible to a random page and read. But there are times when God will speak that way. I opened the Bible to Joel chapter 2 and I read. Joel 2:12-13 reads,
Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
I had been sinning, wearing my suffering for everyone to see, tearing my garments, heaping ashes on my head and crying for others to see. I had to break my heart so He could give me a new one. I had to put on the garment God gave me. Jesus said,
“And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.  But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18).
I had exalted my suffering, wore it so that everyone could see it, and reveled in it. There is a difference between telling people I am suffering and need prayer and walking around looking, feeling, and exuding gloom. I should have trusted them to be compassionate since they too have the Spirit in them. We all suffer. I do not know anyone who isn’t suffering. Mine is no more special or important than yours. How can I share the love Paul described if I am glorifying myself through exalting my suffering? How can I demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit if I am busy demonstrated my pitiable self?
Jesus gave me a garment. Isaiah 61:1-3 reads,
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion--
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
With my torn heart, I can wear a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, I can apply the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and wear the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. When people see me they should see an oak of righteousness and glorify the Lord. Am I praising God or am I walking around faint in spirit?  I have so much to be beautiful and glad about. Jesus overcame death and sin, He rose from the dead and made me alive in Him. One day we will be resurrected, receive new bodies, and spend eternity face to face with God! This life is temporary. We only have a short time to do the good work we were made for and reveal Jesus Christ to the world so they too can have the hope we have. Romans 6:5-11 reads,
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Jesus gave me a new mind and a new heart. I am a new person. But I have to purposefully put on the new self. He gives me these things, but I must put them on. Ephesians 4:20-24 reads,
But that is not the way you learned Christ! — 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Believer, if we want to look like Jesus, who we were created to look like, we have to be diligent about walking with Him. Take off your old filthy garments and put on the new garment washed clean in Jesus’ blood. You are not the sins of your past. You are not your illness, addiction, or bank account. You are not the circumstances of your life. You are a new creation, with a new name. You are a child of the Living God. The devil wants to destroy you. He accuses you of being your old self; he accuses you of being unworthy of God’s grace. Whether you are worthy of grace or not (and who is), you have been granted that grace. God chooses to see you through the blood of Jesus, He chooses to see you as His holy child. You are not what the father of lies claims, you are who the Lord God says you are.
Ask God to search your heart. Listen to what He tells you and put off the old self, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God.

Deuteronomy 8
We were given rules to live by. The Lord gave us the Ten Commandments reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. He then told us that one commandment predominated those. That it was the commandment which is expressed by the Ten. God told us foremost that He is the Lord Our God, One and that we are to love Him with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). The Ten are not like the rest of the Law which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He did fulfill the Ten as well as the greatest, but they are still carried out, not to earn salvation, but because they are the manifestation of Love in us. They are the manifestation of The Spirit of Jesus Christ in us. When we fall short of the image and nature of Christ, He loves us enough to discipline us and bring us back into congruence with Him.
Moses urged Israel to remember the whole Commandment, that is the greatest as lived out by the Ten. Verses 1-2 read,
“The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
Moses exhorted Israel to remember their forty years in the desert, how the Lord had led them and humbled them, and how He had tested their faith. It was God through the wilderness experience who had made them able to handle the great battles that awaited them, who had them able to enter the rest and wealth of The Promised Land.
Do you know anyone who was born privileged or wealthy, who never lacked or wanted or suffered? Do you know anyone who has never been disciplined by a loving parent? These are often the people who feel entitled, have no ability to sympathize or behave as if rules don’t exist for them. There are some people who go through suffering, but never reflect on the good it brought, the change it enabled, or the disciplines they learned. What about you? What have you learned from the bad times in your life? What did the suffering bring to you? Who did the discipline make you? Verses 3-6 read,
“And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.”
Had the ex-slaves of Egypt not gone through the wilderness, they would not have become the free people of Israel, God’s treasured possession. They would have been afraid to fight the giants that inhabited Canaan; they would have been too weak to fight nation after nation to claim their land; they would not have had the faith to obey the Lord and defeat Jericho by walking around its walls.
If I had not been humbled and lost my home to fire, I would not have had the faith to stand up for the Gospel, depend completely on The Lord, or become God’s treasured possession instead of a spinster of the world. What about you? What have you learned from the bad times in your life? What did the suffering bring to you? Who did the discipline make you? His promises, His bounty, and His treasures await us. Verses 7-10 read,
“For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”
We remember the suffering but we are also told to enjoy the blessings, to appreciate that we do not lack anything in God. We are told to delight in the blessings and bless the Lord for them. But once again we warned to remember the discipline of the wilderness. Verses 11-20 read,
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
 We are told to remember the suffering, not the sins that caused the discipline but the wilderness and how the Lord carried us through it. We remember that so that we won’t let the abundance of blessings make us forget, make us prideful, or make us slip back into sin.
Was it Israel who provided the manna? No, it was The Lord. Is it you who brings home the bacon? Or is it the Lord who provided you the job which pays you? Everything belongs to God. It is all His. Psalm 24:1-2 says,
“The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
    the world and those who dwell therein,
2 for he has founded it upon the seas
    and established it upon the rivers.
Don’t take credit for God’s great work and generosity. It was not me who found shelter after the fire, provided the food and clothes I needed, found me a new place to live, or replaced all my lost possessions not once but twice. It was The LORD, my God. If I pat myself on the back for a job well done, I glorify myself, I worship my strength, and I forget who God is and who I am in Him.
Believer, the Lord disciplines you because He loves you. Don’t let His discipline be wasted by forgetting the wilderness and forgetting to love as He loves. He loves you with every word, every deed, and every tear, His entire self. Love Him back the same way with all your heart, soul, and strength.

​Revelation 2:8-11 To the Church in Smyrna
The Lord has no criticisms for the church in Smyrna but there is no obvious good news for them either. First Jesus is described in verse 8,
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.”
Jesus is the first. What is He is the first of? Colossians 1:15-20 tells us,
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
It was by Jesus and through Him that everything was created. And on top of being the Lord of all, the firstborn of all creation, He was also the firstborn of the dead, meaning He became human. He stepped out of eternal life to give eternal life to us who are dead. Jesus, our Lord and God brought us salvation by His death on the cross and eternal life through his resurrection. His resurrection foreshadows our resurrection from death into life. 1 Corinthians 15:16-26 reads,
“For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Jesus is the first, the foremost and most excellent. He is the firstborn of creation, the firstborn of the dead, and the firstfruits of us who will die but have been raised to life. But He is also the last. 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 says,
“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
When Adam sinned, sin and death entered humanity. When Jesus died on the cross, sin died and death died. When He resurrected He brought life and with His ascension He gave us the Spirit. Jesus will bring an end to sin, an end to the warfare of the enemy and end to the enemy when He returns. (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
The church was also reminded that Jesus died but more than that, He came to life. He resurrected. It is that resurrection that gives us eternal life, our hope. Jesus is our hope and He went through every struggle, including dying just for being who He is. So we know that no matter the suffering we face in our life on earth, we have eternal life to keep us persevering through it.
Perhaps the reason Jesus was described this way for the church in Smyrna was because they need to be reminded of that hope. Verse 9 reads,
“I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.”
This church was already suffering. Jesus said He knew their tribulation. Although Smyrna was a rich port city, the Christians there were not wealthy in terms of money. For some reason the Christians could not enjoy the money and trade of the city. They may not have had money but Jesus reminded them they were rich. He probably referred to their treasures in Heaven, earned through their endurance, good works, and faith in God rather than money. Jesus knew too that those He called the synagogue of Satan were causing them more suffering. But Jesus suffered before we did. In John 15:18-23 Jesus encouraged us,
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also.”
The church at Smyrna refused to compromise their faith to get rich in way which would not honor The Lord. They refused to concede to false teachers, slanderers and liars and they suffered for it. But their suffering was going to get worse. Verse 10 reads,
“Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
They were about to suffer worse than they already were, some were going to be sent to prison. I’m sure some were waiting for the encouragement which would come any moment, but nope the next line was worse than the previous one, “Be faithful unto death” Clearly, many of those who were sent to prison were going to be executed. But finally the encouragement came, Jesus reminded them of their hope and their treasures in Heaven. He said, “I will give you the crown of life.”
Just the thought of that moment makes me tear up. And I know, no matter what I go through it will be forgotten at that moment when Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21). Verse 11 says,
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.”
The one who conquers, who overcomes the enemy and doesn’t give into the suffering, tribulation, and attacks the devil throws at him will not be hurt by the second death (the physical death). Some people have suffered deplorably. Some have suffered for Christ’ sake and some have died for His sake. Suffering and dying for Christ’s sake is not some imagined thing it is real and it is horrible, but the promise of eternal life is still better. Let’s read about one such martyrdom.
Polycarp, a disciple of John and a leader of the church of Smyrna was one of those people who would suffer, would be sent to prison and who would be faithful even until he died. The church at Smyrna had been under persecution, and Polycarp knew he was being arrested. Legend says that he prayed so fervently that some who came to arrest him were converted to Christianity. He had served Jesus for 86 years, he was likely the last person alive who had known anyone who had known Jesus. Irenaeus an eyewitness to the events wrote a letter to the churches to tell what had happened. He quoted Polycarp as saying, "How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior? You threaten me with a fire that burns for a season, and after a little while is quenched; but you are ignorant of the fire of everlasting punishment that is prepared for the wicked." He was then burned at the stake and pierced with a spear. His crime was refusing to burn incense to the Roman emperor. Irenaeus recorded his farewell words as, "I bless you Father for judging me worthy of this hour, so that in the company of the martyrs I may share the cup of Christ."
Honestly, I am not sure I could be so noble and courageous when surrounded by a burning fire meant to kill me. I am not certain, I could easily accept death for such a small offense. I hope I would rather die than worship anyone other than The One True God. But I thank God I have never faced that choice and probably never will.
How about you? How much do you suffer? I know you do, as a believer it is a promise that we will suffer. But have you been denied an income for Jesus sake? Have you bled for Jesus name? Have you been imprisoned and sentenced to death for Jesus glory? I hope not, but regardless of how deeply you have suffered, remember you may be poor, but you are rich. For those who conquer Jesus has promised you the crown of life.

​2 Timothy 1
Your walk with Christ has an impact on people around you. Your faith matters. In 2 Timothy Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him. Chapter 1 includes some great encouragement not only for Timothy but for you and me as well. Paul and Timothy cared deeply for one another. Verses 1-7 read,
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy.5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
We are not alone. We walk this road together. We can remind one another of what we have overcome, that we have gifts, and we have The Holy Spirit in us and He is powerful. Walking together in faith leads to relationships. If I am walking on a path with you with Jesus Christ as King and the same Holy Spirit inside me we will (or should) form a relationship. Our brotherhood is already there. Our goals are the same. It happens. You become close to people who share so much with you. Have you experienced that yourself? Are the people you go to church with just people you see once a week or are they really your brothers and sisters in arms?
Walking in faith affects other people. Timothy’s mother and grandmother influenced Timothy, because they lived with a sincere faith, they taught Timothy to enjoy that matching walk. He saw the power and honesty of his family’s walk with Christ and He learned to walk in the same manner.
The Holy Spirit is awesome and He makes your life a testimony. You will affect others as you walk in the Spirit and you will be affected by others. We walk together side by side arms around one another. Galatians 6:1-3 reads,
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
We all suffer and that can really hurt us, but when we realize we all suffer, when we can help each other, we understand suffering is not something to be ashamed of, but a mark of Christianity. We can help each other. And God keeps us. He won’t let the enemy or anything else destroy us. We can live as victims and destroy our own lives. But we are not called to live as victims but as Victors. (1 John 4:4).
Verses 8-10 read,
“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10 and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”
Your relationship with Jesus affects other believers, non-believers and family members. Paul’s faith impacted Timothy. Through Paul’s teaching, prayer and friendship Timothy became a great church leader and affected countless more people. Paul actively and intentionally discipled Timothy. He prayed, he laid on hands, he saw and cultivated gifts, he taught, encouraged, exhorted, and He loved. Verses 13-18 read,
Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
15 You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 17 but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— 18 may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.
You just can’t effectively live for Christ if you’re going it alone. If you are walking for Christ and with Him, you will have to walk with other people. You are called to disciple and be a disciple. (Titus 3:14, Matthew28:19). You are called to love one another as Jesus loved you. (John 13:34-35). I counted 34 commandments about the way we ought to treat one another. You can’t obey those commandments by walking alone. If you are trying to go it alone, I urge you to find ways to connect with a body of believers and I encourage you to take that faith and use it to move the world for Jesus. You can, because He does.
Jesus gave you gifts and a great purpose. He wants you to go out there and fulfill that purpose. You can do it because you have Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit and you have the power of the Almighty on your side, within you and protecting you.