trials

Yesterday was as good for me, as the day before was bad. Good to have those days of laying down in green pastures and being led by still waters, in having our souls restored and refreshed by the Shepherd of our souls.

I was wondering why all "hell" so to speak had broken loose the day before. I was trying to understand before God just where I had went wrong, why God's disciplining hand was evidently at work in my life. 

There is mystery we can't unravel in our troubles. Just living in a fallen world, and seeking to truly follow God in this world brings all the troubles one might imagine. Of course we are told to accept all hardship as discipline from our Father's loving hand for our good.

I think it's key to learn to embrace the good and the bad. All God sends or allows to come our way. I don't mean we're to accept the flaming arrows of the evil one. Not at all. We have the shield of faith to fend those off, etc. But we have to arm ourselves to suffer in our bodies for our faith, just as Christ did, Peter tells us. And we have to remember that troubles beset us for a number of reasons. Just a cursory, quick glance at Job and others in Scripture makes that perfectly evident. But that God is doing his great, mysterious work in it all. Not Satan, or our own doings to our undoing. God is great and good and sovereign in it all.

And we must remember, to whom God entrusts much God gives much. But for us to be like Christ in this world will involve suffering. Some of the "richest" saints/Christians I know are those who have suffered and are suffering the most. So that in the end, along with the apostle Paul we can say that we worked hard, but not us, but the grace of God with us.

What would you like to add to these scattered thoughts on trials?