Triumph Over Trouble预览

Benefits of persecution, part 4 - Growing our faith

James 1:2-4 says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds because the testing of our faith produces perseverance, which leads to maturity. Trouble also keeps us from getting conceited. It helps remind us that God’s grace is sufficient for us and that His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Assume that God is working in your situation! Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.

And when we see others suffer, we can rejoice and encourage them as Paul did in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-7: “We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.”

1 Peter 5:10: “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

Daniels’s prophecy in 11:33-35 demonstrates how God uses our persecution and trouble to refine us and purify us: “Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered. When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.”

Revelation 13:10 and 14:11-12 call for patient endurance and faithfulness on our part, as God’s people, when we suffer.

Psalm 27:5 promises that “in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock,” and in Isaiah 25:4 we see God as a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1-3)!

God will never waste our sorrows if we surrender all of our lives to Him. Every one of our troubles and persecutions will allow us to develop a deeper faith and make us more and more into a likeness of the image of Jesus Christ.