Wednesday, May 21, 2014

DEVO: May 22 - #7 Perseverance

Dear friends, don't be surprised about the fiery trials

that have come among you to test you.

These are not strange happenings.

Instead, rejoice as you share Christ's suffering.

You share his suffering now so that you may also

have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12-13

 

I heard someone say recently that …

 

·         life is 10% what happens

·         and 90% how we react to it.

 

Trials WILL come in this life. In our verse for today, Peter told us not to be surprised by this.

 

Another apostle, James, put it like this, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith  develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature  and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).

 

Yet another apostle, Paul, made this point too, talks about it in this way: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

 

Trials WILL come in your life. The only question is how you and I will deal with it.

 

Paul talked about armor that allows us to withstand life’s trials – whether they’re internal temptations, external oppression, or inevitable happenstances of life in a broken world. The part of this armor that guards our thoughts is the helmet.

 

Paul tells us that when we focus upward on heaven – rather than downward on this broken earth – that 90% of us that determines how we react will be lifted up.

 

In Christ’s Love,

a person who wants to rejoice always

not worry about anything and

have the peace of God which

passes all understanding that

keeps my heart and mind

in Christ Jesus my Lord

 

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