| The Lord has not promised His people an easy pathway to heaven. He assured His disciples, In the world ye shall have tribulation (John 16:33). Those who preach a Christian life of ease and prosperity, free from discomfort and adversity, do not proclaim the message of Christ and the apostles. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you (I Pet. 4:12), but regard it as the certain lot of Christians. But while tribulation is certain, we can rejoice that it is controlled. By whom? By Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Eph. 1:11). He is the Refiner who places the precious gold in the fire. He knows the intensity of heat and duration of time that it must endure in the furnace until His purpose is accomplished. To change the figure, we are the clay in the hands of the Potter, who knows how much pressure to apply and when and where to apply it. Nothing that we are as believers is outside the control of our sovereign God and loving Father. The comfort in all our afflictions is to remember that His intention is not our detriment or destruction, but our good (Rom. 8:28). His purpose is good, and His presence is guaranteed. He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), and He will give us grace sufficient for every test (II Cor. 12:9). |
