Love the Tuesday Devotional (finally getting a chance to blog it!) (iPhone users, click here to view this week's devos!)
I Peter 1:6-7 | In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Preparing for trials is not something I ever really thought about. I'm not the Boyscout-type guy... Be always prepared... That's just not the motto of my life. I'm they type of guy that rolls with the punches.
Paul is clear, however, that trials will come, and will test our faith. God does not shelter Christians from trials. Instead, He encourages us to prepare AHEAD OF TIME by strengthening OUR FAITH in Him.
It's hard for a self-proclaimed procrastinator to plan ahead, especially for the bad things that will happen in life... and then when the bad things happen...
I Peter 1:8-9 | Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
... when the bad things happen we focus on the goodness of Christ. Even though we have not seen Him, we know of Him and His love for us - and the knowledge of His love gets us through the trials.
God, thank you for the trials. Allow them to bring us closer to you.
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