For thought and meditation

[rl69]

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. JOHN 16:33
The typical view of the Christian life is that it means being delivered from all adversity. But it actually means being delivered in adversity, which is something very different. “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling…” (Psalm 91:1,10)— the place where you are at one with God.
If you are a child of God, you will certainly encounter adversities, but Jesus says you should not be surprised when they come. “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He is saying, “There is nothing for you to fear.” The same people who refused to talk about their adversities before they were saved often complain and worry after being born again because they have the wrong idea of what it means to live the life of a saint.
God does not give us overcoming life— He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength. Are you asking God to give you life, liberty, and joy? He cannot, unless you are willing to accept the strain. And once you face the strain, you will immediately get the strength. Overcome your own timidity and take the first step. Then God will give you nourishment— “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life…” (Revelation 2:7). If you completely give of yourself physically, you become exhausted. But when you give of yourself spiritually, you get more strength. God never gives us strength for tomorrow, or for the next hour, but only for the strain of the moment. Our temptation is to face adversities from the standpoint of our own common sense. But a saint can “be of good cheer” even when seemingly defeated by adversities, because victory is absurdly impossible to everyone, except God

[USMC87]

The battlefield is real and is a daily battle, Amen.

[Blackwater]

Wow! What a vital and wondrous message! God is NOT some "sugar daddy in the sky," and if He were, we'd just jockey for his favor, instead of truly loving Him. So Christians get no special "pass" when it comes to woes in this world. They just get the certain assurance that whatever they may have to face, God will see them through it, and reward them on the "other side."

Look at it this way: We're all His creation. If you make something good, don't you test it before placing all your faith in it? We HAVE to be tested, and sometimes trained, to do what we need to do. If we were never tested, what good would we be, really? And how could we ever really get to know ourselves and our capabilities? And His?

Tests are our salvation, even if we don't always like facing them. When in school, we never liked taking tests, but they PROVED what we knew and what we didn't, and gave us a chance to catch up on what we lacked. How could it be any different than this, really?

We may THINK we want a God who makes everything EASY for us, but .... I wonder if we'd really like the results of that, if we got it? I think we'd soon come to realize that without being tested, we'd never have any basis for faith, commitment, or many other things that constantly mean so much to us as we travel this road on this side of the Great Veil. Wanting things to be easy is "natural," I guess, but we tend to fool ourselves in many ways, primarily by not really thinking, but spontaneously just "wanting" things, without considering whether they're actually GOOD for us or not. I thank God that we have a Lord that is MUCH smarter than we are, and looks after us even when we're erring.