Paul spent years serving Christ, yet he experienced continual suffering. It doesn’t seem fair, does it? Why would God let him go through so much pain? It’s a question many of us ask today about ourselves. We think the Lord should protect us from hardships, but He doesn’t always do so.
Maybe our reasoning is backward. We think faithful Christians don’t deserve to suffer, but from God’s perspective, suffering is part of being a Christian. If we all had lives of ease without pain, we’d never really know God, because we would never need Him. Like it or not, adversity teaches us things that simply reading the Bible never will.
I’m not saying we don’t need to know Scripture; that’s our foundation for faith. But if what we believe is never tested, it remains head knowledge. How will we ever know the Lord can be trusted in the midst of trouble if we’ve never experienced hardships? God gives us opportunities to apply scriptural truths to the difficulties facing us, and in the process, we find Him faithful.
Trials can be a means of building faith or an avenue to discouragement and self-pity—it’s up to you. But if you’ll apply God’s Word to your situation, your trust in Him and your faith will be strengthened through adversity.
We’ve all occasionally fallen for a lie, whether it was something as trivial as false advertising or as serious as a scam that emptied a bank account. Whatever the trickery was, it can be traced back to the Father of Lies—Satan (John 8:44). And his most devastating deceptions are those that lead us into sin. This is why it’s vital to understand the devil’s pattern of deceit, which goes all the way back to the garden of Eden.
Satan’s first move was to entice Eve to doubt God’s Word, and his strategy was to ask, by means of the snake, “Has God really said … ?” (Gen. 3:1). People have been falling for this deception ever since. When they hear one of God’s clear commands, they rationalize that it’s not really what He meant or it doesn’t apply in their case.
Next, the devil directly contradicted God’s Word and impugned His character by denying that Eve would suffer any consequences for sin. Instead, the enemy promised her some amazing benefits if she’d eat the fruit. And this, too, is how he operates today.
When temptation comes, don’t believe Satan’s lies. Sin always has repercussions. Therefore, ask yourself if the temporary gratification of a wrong choice is worth suffering the consequences that are sure to follow.
It can be sobering to think about life as a field of our own planting, and what’s in our field is determined by the type of seed we have chosen to sow. What if we selected the wrong “seed” but don’t realize it until years later, when we’re standing in a field filled with mature “plants” that are causing us pain and difficulty?
In this agricultural analogy of sowing and reaping, there are only two types of seeds—those that originate from our sinful desires and those that originate from the Spirit. The first kind of seed produces sin and corrupts our character, but the second kind produces Christlike qualities associated with eternal life.
Sowing and reaping is a principle we cannot change; it’s a reality of how our world works. The attitudes and actions we sow now will produce more of the same later, so what will we choose to plant? If we let sinful qualities take root, they will in time characterize our whole life (Gal. 5:19-21). The good news is that we can always change seeds. If we want a life that others see as a godly harvest, then we must plant the Spirit’s seeds and lean on Him to cultivate His fruit (Gal. 5:22-23).
Society’s philosophies and values are everywhere—on radio and TV, in books and magazines, and in conversations at the workplace and corner coffee shop. Believers can’t avoid the pressures to be and think like everyone else. And yet the Bible calls us to live in our culture without becoming part of it.
In his letter to Titus, who ministered on the worldly-minded island of Crete, Paul explained how we are to accomplish this. Those who are above reproach—meaning blameless and unmoved by the sins of the culture—must be “holding firmly the faithful word” (Titus 1:9). Paul was saying that we must cling to the Word of God and develop a lifestyle of applying His principles.
The Bible is the revelation of God—He tells us what He thinks, how He acts, and what He expects of us—but the Bible can’t help us if we never open it. Make time to read Scripture daily and carefully meditate upon it. What do the passages mean and how do they apply to our life? Scriptural truths are most powerful when we believe the Word wholeheartedly and obey it consistently. As we take practical steps to keep Scripture in our everyday life, we will reflect Christ in the world without being of the world.
Many people believe that piling up good works makes them right with the Lord. Yet the only payment for sin that can satisfy divine justice is death (Rom. 6:23). This is why God sent His Son Jesus to die in our place. Jesus’ death satisfied God’s justice and brought us ...
• New Life. Our spirit is made alive in Christ the moment we acknowledge that we are sinners, turn from our rebelliousness, and believe that His death paid for our sin debt in full.
• Freedom. At salvation, sin’s power over us is broken, and we are set free from its hold. Jesus raised us from the pit of disobedience, and now we can exercise our newfound freedom and follow Him.
• Security. When we accept our Savior’s sacrifice as payment for our sins, we are permanently adopted into the heavenly Father’s family. Our status changes instantly: Once objects of wrath, we are now children of God. And someday we will be seated in the heavenly realms with Christ to enjoy life everlasting.
God, the very one against whom we rebelled, substituted His Son Jesus to receive the punishment that was rightfully ours. How will you show your gratitude to the Father for His saving grace?
