My Thoughts for the Day

So yesterday i was given yet another trial. Nothing crazy, but enough to rattle me. As i was feeling helpless and violated, i thought of Satan asking to torment Job and sift Peter like wheat. For some reason that gave me strength. I am sure Satan has better things to destroy than me, but in the context of my prayer lately it wasn't a surprise that yesterday went down the way it did.

It is fairly easy to fight through trials when you view them as solely an attack from Satan... at least for me. We are linked with Christ, therefore enemies of Satan. We shouldn't be surprised when trial comes. Satan is the enemy and is to be defeated. However, it is not my (or your) job to vanquish Satan - Jesus did that on the cross. The larger component i tend to overlook is that God allows trial and suffering to happen yet never beyond the point you can handle. Why? We may never know this side of eternity, nor should we even inquire, why. ¹²"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
¹³That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And the wicked be shaken out of it?
Job 38:12-13 (You can pretty much read Job 38-41 and get your answer to the question, why.

We have been given examples in the Bible, and ultimately the legacy of Jesus Himself. We can look back at intimate details of the lives of Peter, Paul and, of course Jesus, and see what the Father's forbearance accomplished. Saul persecuted Christians and looked on with approval at their death. God then struck Saul with blindness and then Saul died and became Paul. Simon was impetuous,
volatile and impulsive. Jesus called Simon to Himself and re-named him Peter the Rock, foreshadowing the man that was to be made. We can see Peter's growth through the New Testament. The Peter of the Gospels is a different man from the Peter in Acts, a different man in Galatians, and still a different man in 1&2 Peter. We actually get to watch how trials grew Peter.

Most important of all, the trials of Jesus. God did not put any restrictions on Satan's request upon Jesus as with Job. Jesus died an excruciating and humiliating death. But after there is joy, just as after birthing pangs, there is joy in a new child.

In my own life, i can see how God is using trials to grow me. Like an ear of corn, you have to husk it, ripping off a piece at a time to get to the good stuff... unless you like Tamales more than corn on the cob... okay, that might have been a bad illustration but you get the point. Through trials, God is stripping you of sin, making you new and that is cause for rejoice!
I will not say that trial and suffering isn't hard - it is, sometimes it hurts so bad that you'd, "choose strangling and death rather than [your] life" (Job 7:15). But look at what was accomplished in Peter, Paul and on the cross! By enduring affliction, clinging to Jesus we are storing up our treasures in Heaven. So hopefully these stories of what transpired and of what is to come for those who have faith in Jesus will give you an eternal perspective through suffering.

Passage 1 Peter 1:3-7:

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

⁶In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,

⁷so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;