Thursday, February 24, 2011

What Will My Heart Feel?

In Acts 15:22 it says: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”.
This one verse contains a truth that most of us don’t really want to ponder. The average person doesn't sit there and think "Hey, I wonder what kind of pain I'll be put through today."  For the most part, the things we struggle the most with are the pains that come upon us unexpectedly. We're not prepared for the sudden dose of reality that life sends our way. 
When life does hit us however, we often forget that we have the best team in the entire universe. Why? Because we have God on our team, and you know he always wins. God will never give us more than we can handle. 
When we have to endure and fight through our momentary struggles, we will be granted a reward that will last for all eternity.  We are in a very real battle on this earth as the enemy of our soul seeks to rob us of our joy and darken the hope that we have in Christ.  He is unrelenting in his attack, but we also must be unrelenting  and unwavering in our faith as we stand on truth as conquerors in the army of the living God.  We cannot be defeated for our victory was paid by the royal blood of Christ on the cross. 
 But the fact is that if we have put our trust in the finished work of the Christ and have made him our Lord and Savior, we will go through trials and testing as our faith is proved genuine.   Paul tells us in Romans 8:17 that we are co-heirs with Christ  “if indeed we share in his sufferings that we may also share in his glory”.
Just because we go through trials, hardships, and pain here in this life, doesn't mean that it won't be worth it when we stand before him. This is told everywhere in the bible. My favorite one is this: "If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name." 1 Peter 4: 14-16 How will it feel to stand before him, and hear him say "Job Well Done, Faithful Servant." Everyday, I try to live my life in such a way that when I stand before him, he'll be proud of the life I've lived in this life. 

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