Bible League: Living His Word These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.— 1 Peter 1:7 NLT There's an important day coming. Indeed, it is one of the most important days that has ever been or that ever will be. It's the day when Jesus Christ returns and is revealed to the whole world. It's the day when all those who look forward to His coming receive the priceless inheritance that is being kept in heaven for us. What is this inheritance? It is salvation (1 Peter 1:5)—more than the first-fruits of salvation that we already have (Romans 8:23), it is the ultimate manifestation of everything associated with the great salvation we have in Christ Jesus. Obviously, that's something that we can look forward to. It's something that helps us to go through the things that we have to go through before Jesus returns. What do we have to go through? We have to go through all the trials, troubles, tribulations, and persecutions that come against us in this dispensation. Although Jesus suffered and died for our sins, although the kingdom of God has come, the kingdom is still not here in its fullness. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, "May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Satan and his minions are still causing all sorts of trouble on earth. They are still vainly trying to roll back the inevitable march of the kingdom to its complete manifestation. As our verse for today teaches us, these trials that we experience are like tests. Just like fire shows that gold is the real deal, the tests show that we are the real deal. They show that we're not just pretenders. We are true Christians. Trials, troubles, tribulations, and persecutions may set us back, but they don't defeat us. With the help of God's protection (1 Peter 1:5), we go through them in victory. Despite them, the overwhelming victory is ours (Romans 8:37). And there is an added bonus. As Peter tells us in our verse, "When your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor." Like brave battlefield heroes who receive their medals, we will receive the rewards for having been the tried and true warriors of the kingdom. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 24, 25, 26 Isaiah 24 -- Devastation on the Earth NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 25 -- Song of Praise for God's Favor NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 26 -- Song of Praise for God's Protection NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Ephesians 4 Ephesians 4 -- Unity in the Spirit; Life as Children of Light NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.Insight Paul mentions two gifts God gives when we become believers: (1) a seal of ownership to show who our Master is, and (2) the Holy Spirit, who guarantees that we belong to him and will receive all his benefits. The Holy Spirit guarantees that salvation is ours now, and that we will receive so much more when Christ returns. The great comfort and power the Holy Spirit gives in this life is a foretaste or down payment (“first installment”) of the benefits of our eternal life in God's presence. Challenge With the privilege of belonging to God comes the responsibility of identifying ourselves as his faithful servants. Don't be ashamed to let others know that you are his. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Daniel 10:11 A man greatly beloved.Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote his only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You lived in sin, and rioted in it, must you not have been greatly beloved for God to have borne so patiently with you? You were called by grace and led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and superabounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if he has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers, or as though he were unwilling to hear us--for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and so go to thy bed in peace. Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 4:7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. James 1:18 In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. Romans 9:16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Romans 3:27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 1 Corinthians 1:30,31 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, • so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD." Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, • in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. • Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 1 Corinthians 6:11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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