🏳️‍🌈✝️ Is There a Reason?

The Apostolic Faith Church

01/11/2018

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The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you. – 1 Peter 5:10

 

Although the young adults in the Sunday school class came from different walks of life, they all seemed to have one thing in common: life was a struggle at the moment. There were health problems, business stresses, and need of employment. One morning, the Sunday school teacher shared 1 Peter 5:10 with the class. It was as if that verse had a red flag on it. Perhaps the reason for their suffering was to help them become perfect, established, strengthened, and settled.

Over a period of time, as each member prayed, God began to work out the problems in their lives: the unemployed teacher became the principal at a Christian school, and the small business owner became a full-time Gospel worker. 

 

God’s Word tells us that Job was a perfect and upright man who “feared God and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1). He was put to the test. It is hard to comprehend the suffering that Job endured, but through all the trials, Job held on to his integrity. He said that God “knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Job knew that God was in control and that, no matter what happened, God was there for him. Because he trusted God, “the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12).

 

It would be great to go through life and have everything go according to our plans, never having any tests or trials, but life here on earth is not like that. If we were to look back to the times when we have felt the closest to God, it was most likely a time when we had great needs. Those hard periods brought us to our knees before God, and as we prayed, His presence was felt in a very special way. 

 

If we hold on to God, the victory that we will find in our trials of faith will make us perfect, establish us, strengthen us, and settle us. We will enjoy blessings that we never imagined.