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daily devotional
Morning ...
Romans 8:28
We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.
Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that
God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that
an invisible hand is always on the world's tiller, and that wherever providence
may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for
everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus
treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, "It is I, be not afraid." He
knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that
there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not
to arise. He can say, "If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should
lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the
kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it." "We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God." The Christian does not
merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything
has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have
worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh
and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most
divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs
wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer's heart is assured, and
he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the
spirit of true resignation pray, "Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it
comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy
children."
"Say not my soul, 'From whence can God relieve my care?
Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere.
His method is sublime, His heart profoundly kind,
God never is before His time, and never is behind.'"
James 1:2-4
(2) My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers
temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
(4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing.
Go to this verse on Bible Tools
1. Trials should produce growth. Just as we prune a shrub or tree
to force it to grow into a more perfect form, so God does with us. William
Barclay makes an excellent comment on this:
. . . these tests or trials are not meant to make us fall, they
are meant to make us soar. They are not meant to defeat us; they are meant to
be defeated. They are not meant to make us weaker; they are meant to make us
stronger. Therefore we should not bemoan them; we should rejoice in them.
Notice that trials should produce growth, rather than that they
will produce it. Sometimes, we just do not learn the lesson; we fail; we
regress; we sink into self-pity. This leads me to another lesson learned.
2. The fruit we produce depends on our outlook. This does not
imply that anger and depression are not normal human emotions. They are. With
any trial, you wonder why. You evaluate your actions, your mistakes, your sins.
You repent, fast, and pray. You cry out to God with more emotion than you knew
you possessed. If you are normal, you have moments of anger, perhaps even doubt.
Here is where we can produce fruit or destroy it. With God's
help, we must forcibly evict these carnal thoughts from our minds. We cannot
allow seeds of doubt to germinate, and if they do, they cannot be allowed to
grow. We must look forward and deal with the situation.
Paul writes:
. . . we know for certain that He who raised the Lord Jesus
from death shall also raise us with Jesus. We shall all stand together before
Him. All this is indeed working out for your benefit, for as more grace is
given to more and more people so will the thanksgiving to the glory of God be
increased. This is the reason why we never lose heart. The outward man does
indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh
strength. These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning
for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our
pain. (II Corinthians 4:14-17, Phillips)
So it is good advice that we not resent our trials or bemoan our
fate or the state in which we find ourselves. As James says, "Count it all
joy," which brings us to the next lesson.
3. Joy comes after, not before, the trial—and often not during
it. No sane person sits around, wishing he had a trial. That is absurd. No one
is ecstatic to find himself encompassed in pain. Only when you have faced your
troubles and started to fight can you begin to see even a glimmer of a positive
result at its conclusion.
James' advice is to count or consider our trials joyfully. The
Phillips' version continues, "Realise that they come to test your faith and to
produce endurance" (James 1:3). These words reflect a passage of time. Hebrews
12:2 says Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before Him." He
thought nothing of the pain and shame because of the joy He knew would follow
His suffering. Joy came afterward.
Verse 11 says, "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the
present, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Here is convincing proof
that joy is primarily post-trial.
Yet even this joy is not the ecstatic, "Hallelujah!" kind of joy.
Chara means "cheerfulness" or "calm delight." God's Spirit does not produce in
us a gloating, "I did it!" kind of emotion, but a cheerful peace of mind, an
awareness that we survived and grew. We feel a kind of satisfaction that God
has pruned us so that we might become more like him. This process helps us to
appreciate our lives more, and to be more thankful, understanding, and
sympathetic to the plight of others.
A lady with a long-term illness once wrote to us about her
trials. As she came slowly out of her personal struggle, she passed on to us
several things that we found to be true. One line she wrote is very true: "I
never realized how wonderful it is to be able to do ordinary things until I
couldn't do them." She had "never realized." Yet now, because of her trial, she
counted or considered her situation and found joy in a simple act.
By sharing this with us, she gave us hope and encouragement. We
saw this new perspective as positive. This is fruit borne through testing. It
is God's refining process at work. He is removing impurities.
As hard as it seemed, after giving them much prayer and thought,
we found that each trial was specific to us. It was what we needed to make us
more like God. We did not see this initially, but through perseverance and
growth, it became clear.
This is why we are happy that God has chosen us to suffer
whatever trials He may allow. As James goes on to write:
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been
proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those
who love Him" (James 1:12).
Mike Ford
From Joy and Trial
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daily devotional
Evening ...
Numbers 32:6
Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?
Kindred has its obligations. The Reubenites and Gadites would have been
unbrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conquered, and had left
the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much
by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if
we do not make some return to the church of Christ by giving her our best
energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks. Others are combating the
errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing ones from amid the ruins of
the fall, and if we fold our hands in idleness we had need be warned, lest the
curse of Meroz fall upon us. The Master of the vineyard saith, "Why stand ye
here all the day idle?" What is the idler's excuse? Personal service of Jesus
becomes all the more the duty of all because it is cheerfully and abundantly
rendered by some. The toils of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame
us if we sit still in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of
those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain escape the cross and yet wear
the crown; to them the question for this evening's meditation is very
applicable. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the
crucible? If the diamond must be vexed upon the wheel, are we to be made
perfect without suffering? Who hath commanded the wind to cease from blowing
because our bark is on the deep? Why and wherefore should we be treated better
than our Lord? The firstborn felt the rod, and why not the younger brethren? It
is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a
soldier of the cross. Wiser far is he who, being first resigned to the divine
will, groweth by the energy of grace to be pleased with it, and so learns to
gather lilies at the cross foot, and, like Samson, to find honey in the lion.
Morning ...
Isaiah 21:11
Watchman, what of the night?
What enemies are abroad? Errors are a numerous horde, and new ones appear
every hour: against what heresy am I to be on my guard? Sins creep from their
lurking places when the darkness reigns; I must myself mount the watch-tower,
and watch unto prayer. Our heavenly Protector foresees all the attacks which
are about to be made upon us, and when as yet the evil designed us is but in
the desire of Satan, He prays for us that our faith fail not, when we are
sifted as wheat. Continue O gracious Watchman, to forewarn us of our foes, and
for Zion's sake hold not thy peace. "Watchman, what of the night?" What weather
is coming for the Church? Are the clouds lowering, or is it all clear and fair
overhead? We must care for the Church of God with anxious love; and now that
Popery and infidelity are both threatening, let us observe the signs of the
times and prepare for conflict. "Watchman, what of the night?" What stars are
visible? What precious promises suit our present case? You sound the alarm,
give us the consolation also. Christ, the polestar, is ever fixed in His place,
and all the stars are secure in the right hand of their Lord. But watchman,
when comes the morning? The Bridegroom tarries. Are there no signs of His
coming forth as the Sun of Righteousness? Has not the morning star arisen as
the pledge of day? When will the day dawn, and the shadows flee away? O Jesus,
if Thou come not in person to Thy waiting Church this day, yet come in Spirit
to my sighing heart, and make it sing for joy.
"Now all the earth is bright and glad
With the fresh morn; But all my heart is cold, and dark and sad:
Sun of the soul, let me behold Thy dawn!
Come, Jesus, Lord, O quickly come, according to Thy word."
Philippians 1:23-24
(23) For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart,
and to be with Christ; which is far better: (24) Nevertheless to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you.
Since Paul would go to the grave at death, why did he say he would
be with Christ?
Notice that Paul did not say where he would go or when he would
be with Christ. There is not one word mentioning heaven here, nor is there one
word saying that he would be with Christ immediately. Then why the hurry for
departure?
To understand what is meant here, turn to another scripture where
Paul was ready to depart. In II Timothy 4:6-8 Paul wrote: "For I am now ready
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day. and not to me only, but unto all them also that love
his appearing."
In these verses Paul explains what he meant by being with Christ.
He does not receive his reward immediately at death. But there is laid up a
crown of righteousness which the Lord shall give him at that day. What day? At
Christ's appearing—His second coming! In Isaiah 40:10 we notice this same day
mentioned: "Behold, the Lord God will come . . . behold, his reward is with
him. . . ." Check Revelation 22:12 also.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: "For the Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the
trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (I Thessalonians
4:16-17).
This is when the dead "that sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake" (Daniel 12:2). The dead have not been with the Lord these thousands of
years; but they are awaiting the time when they will in the future awaken from
the dust of the earth to meet the Lord in the air!
This is the time when, according to I Corinthians 15:52, the dead
shall be raised incorruptible by the power of the Spirit of God. This is the
first resurrection.
Now Paul's enigmatic statement in Philippians is clear. He was
willing to remain alive for the sake of the Philippians who needed him as a
teacher and apostle, even though he sometimes desired personally to be
delivered from troubles by death to await the resurrection and be with Christ.
To die is gain! There is no knowledge of passing time (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10;
Psalms 146:4). The next moment is the resurrection!
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
From What Is the Reward of the Saved?
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