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January 1 - January 1, 2021
Often it is those who preach “tolerance,” “nonjudgmentalism,” and “intellectualism” who are most intolerant.
We tend to forget even the basic fact that all people live in a fallen world—we are sinful creatures living in a corrupt, sin-cursed society. Believers should not be surprised, perplexed, or resentful when they encounter difficulties throughout this life.
God’s sovereignty has a role in all events—from the most pleasant and easiest to accept to the most traumatic and hardest to understand.
“To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God.”1
Surely God does not have to test any of us to find out what is in our hearts because He already knows. Rather, He tests us so that we might know what is in our hearts.
Whenever God brings us through a severe trial, it will reveal to us either the strength or weakness of our faith and the faithfulness of God.
reason God sends trials is to humble us. He uses suffering to remind us not to think more confidently of our spiritual strength than we should (Rom. 12:3).
The path to blessing is often through suffering but always through obedience.
There is really only one justification for believers to lose their joy, and that is when they sin.
We need not allow any amount of unfair or false treatment to steal our joy in Christ and the gospel. The key for us to emulate, by God’s power, is Paul’s intense, overriding devotion to the cause of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:28–29; Phil. 3:7–14).
The Lord never abandons His own, no matter how bleak our prospects in life or how frustrating and fearful our circumstances.
Paul said, “To me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). To Paul, Christ was the reason for his existence. That’s why his only real concern in life was serving Christ and proclaiming His gospel. As long as he met that objective, Paul didn’t care if he lived or died. In fact, given the choice, he would just as soon die, because dying is the ultimate gain for the believer. Death frees us from the burdens of this life and allows us to glorify Christ in eternity.
Christians are at odds with the world, simply because they have been called by Christ. By standing with Christ, sooner or later we will suffer some form of unjust rejection, punishment, criticism, or persecution. We offend the world when we take a stand for righteousness or manifest a lifestyle that reflects Christ. That’s why we have to expect suffering. Jesus Himself promised believers that their union with Him would elicit the hostility of the world:
Whenever the going gets tough, we can always come to Him in prayer, confident that He will fully empathize with what we are enduring. It is truly comforting to be able to talk to the One who has experienced it all and emerged successful every time. Other people may try to sympathize with our suffering, but they can never understand as Jesus can. Christ is able to sympathize with us, His children, regarding the normal problems, pains, and struggles we encounter in life. But His sympathy certainly includes those significant times when our pain and suffering seem unbearable. If Jesus expresses
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The primary and basic idea of the biblical word “peace” (OT salom; NT eirene) is completeness, soundness, wholeness.… The innumerable blessings of the Christian revolve around the concept of peace. The gospel is the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:15). Christ is our peace (Eph. 2:14–15); God the Father is the God of peace (1 Thes. 5:23). The inalienable privilege of every Christian is the peace of God (Phil. 4:9) because of the legacy of peace left by Christ in his death (John 14:27; 16:33). These blessings are not benefits laid up in glory only, but are a present possession (Rom. 8:6; Col. 3:15).
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Many Christians are like poor photographs—overexposed and underdeveloped. They’ve had plenty of input from the Word of God, but what difference has it made in their lives? Spiritual growth is a commitment to change. And yet, the human heart resists nothing as strongly as it resists change. We will do anything to avoid it.1
Inasmuch as we are born to trouble as fallen sinners in a fallen world of sinners, it is reasonable not to be surprised when trouble shows up.
Persecution, affliction, and suffering are part of life to be anticipated and do not interfere with God’s plan. They are common to all, especially to obedient and faithful believers.
Even the worst suffering is working for our good (Rom. 8:28).
Some interpreters believe, and I agree, that 1 Peter 4:15 is referring to political agitation—revolutionary activity that seeks to disrupt and interfere with the function and flow of the existing government. If such an interpretation is accurate, then Peter was calling for Christians to live as good citizens in non-Christian cultures. This is consistent with what he wrote in 1 Peter 2:11–19 and what Paul called for in Romans 13:1–7 and Titus 3:1–4. They should do their jobs, live peaceable lives, share the gospel, and exalt Christ. He leaves no room for believers to become revolutionaries in
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Our sufferings began at the cross and are part of God’s unfolding plan that culminates with the Great White Throne.
There may be times when God needs to discipline us so we may serve Him with greater effectiveness (Heb. 12:5–13).
To trust God in times of adversity is admittedly a hard thing to do.… Trusting God is a matter of faith, and faith is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Only the Holy Spirit can make His Word come alive in our hearts and create faith, but we can choose to look to Him to do that, or we can choose to be ruled by our feelings of anxiety or resentment or grief.4
True joy does not come cheaply or as a fleeting, superficial emotion. Real joy is produced by much deeper factors than the circumstances that produce superficial happiness. Christians who struggle through the negative circumstances of life, floundering in doubt and dismay, have forgotten that genuine joy awaits them from the confidence that their lives are hidden with Christ in God. In God’s providence, that joy and assurance can be most strong in a time of suffering.
Wisdom is the practical understanding of how to live life in obedience to the will and Word of God and for His glory (Prov. 3:5–7; 4:11; 8:12; 10:8; 14:8).
One of the most humbling, yet least regarded, truths concerning sufferings is that they do not exclude favorites. This principle operates all through the natural world. Disasters, accidents, crimes, diseases, economic recessions, and wars affect people of all classes.
Those of us who are better off materially need to welcome trials because they remind us that our true dependency is on God and His grace, not in our privileged economic status. The humiliation of trials will also remind us that earthly riches are temporary; they fade away like grass.
Faith in Christ lifts the lowly brother beyond his trials to the great height of a position in the Kingdom of Christ, where as God’s child he is rich and may rejoice and boast. Faith in Christ does an equally blessed thing for the rich brother: it fills him with the Spirit of Christ, the spirit of lowliness and true Christian humility.… As the poor brother forgets all his earthly poverty, so the rich brother forgets all his earthly riches. The two are equals by faith in Christ.2
