God never allows me to go through more than I could bear...
Yet at the same time He stretches me beyond my present limit, so that I get "pressed out of measure" in order for my faith to grow to new limits.
You see, the life of a Christian is a tough one at times. Many Christians do not like this kind of talk. But God's word says to "endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3).
The fact is, there are times when this walk with God gets hard, real hard. I know it. I have experienced it. And the Lord is not finished molding and making me into the person that He wants me to become. So I know, too, that even more hardships and growing pains are still ahead.
Of course, lots of Christians nowadays do not want to know about this. But I believe that God will never be able to use any of them other than to a minimum. They are like the faithless Israelites who went a certain distance with Moses in their exodus out of Egypt, but at a certain point, they turned back. As a result, they lost everything that God had in store for them. They never made it to the promised land. They never obtained the glorious victory God had planned for them. And today's church folks are no exception.
Many of us will never go deeper with the Lord until we learn how to endure all things, to suffer with joy, and to expect and anticipate all kinds of hardships; not to run away from them.
I believe that what made saints like Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, the apostles John and Paul, Ruth and many others so noble, was their ability to go through their respective trials and suffering without losing faith.
D.B.
You see, the life of a Christian is a tough one at times. Many Christians do not like this kind of talk. But God's word says to "endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3).
The fact is, there are times when this walk with God gets hard, real hard. I know it. I have experienced it. And the Lord is not finished molding and making me into the person that He wants me to become. So I know, too, that even more hardships and growing pains are still ahead.
Of course, lots of Christians nowadays do not want to know about this. But I believe that God will never be able to use any of them other than to a minimum. They are like the faithless Israelites who went a certain distance with Moses in their exodus out of Egypt, but at a certain point, they turned back. As a result, they lost everything that God had in store for them. They never made it to the promised land. They never obtained the glorious victory God had planned for them. And today's church folks are no exception.
Many of us will never go deeper with the Lord until we learn how to endure all things, to suffer with joy, and to expect and anticipate all kinds of hardships; not to run away from them.
I believe that what made saints like Job, Joseph, Jeremiah, the apostles John and Paul, Ruth and many others so noble, was their ability to go through their respective trials and suffering without losing faith.
D.B.
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