Were you surprised when you became a follower of Christ there were times of suffering?
Pain?
Uncertainty?
Hopelessness?
Do not be misled. Until you reach the other side of eternity. The woes of life will knock on your front door. Threatening to destroy your faith in Christ.
This is why the Lord allows you to experience adversity, defeating disappointment, even betrayal. So you become God-centered, not self-centered. A lesson many like Joseph learn the hard way.
Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph— a beautiful robe.
But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it. They hated him more than ever.
“Listen to this dream,” he said. “We were out in the field. Tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”
His brothers responded, “So, you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?”
And they hated him all the more because of his dreams, and the way he talked about them.
Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it.
“Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him.
“What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” Genesis 37:3-11
Neither Jacob or Joseph understood that these dreams were prophetic. God would use Joseph to preserve the nation of Israel— God’s chosen people.
But Joseph would first have to learn that every good and perfect gift the Lord gives to you. You are to used for His glory, not yours. Slavery, false accusations, imprisonment and betrayal would be Joseph’s teachers.
Fortunately, you and I have a Teacher whose methods are less severe if we will only listen and obey Him— Jesus.
So, whatever you do. Do it enthusiastically as something done for the Lord and not for men. Knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. Colossians 3:23-24
God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death He has given us new life and a hope that lives on. God has something stored up for you in heaven. Where it will never decay or be ruined or disappear.
You have faith in God whose power will protect you until the last day. Then He will save you just as He has always planned to do.
On that day you will be glad. Even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while, your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns.
You have never seen Jesus, and you don’t see Him now. But still you love Him and have faith in Him, and no words can tell how glad and happy you are to be saved. That’s why you have faith. 1 Peter 1:3-9
Faith crucifies the flesh— its passions and appetites and desires. Producing in you the desires and actions that please God. It trains you to reject and renounce all ungodliness, irreligion and worldly passionate desires. To live discreet, temperate, self-controlled, upright, devout, spiritually whole lives in this present world. Titus 2:12
Faith is capable of demolishing all the barriers between God and us. So that all are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord. As if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. 2 Corinthians 3:18
Faith infuses you with hope. Hope not birthed from an illusion, a hallucination or impossibility but from truth. Faith supplies all you will ever need to live a victorious, blessed life.
Never abandon your relationship with the Lord. Even when outward circumstances suggest God is absent, unfaithful or uncaring. Continue to obey His precepts and depend upon His goodness and faithfulness.
Never forget God alone gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work. Knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:57-58
Be a VOICE shouting into the wilderness.
“CHRIST is returning!”
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