Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay.
But My righteous one shall live by faith; And if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:35-39 NASB)
This morning, I find myself contemplating life's many difficulities. There is not a person in this world now or ever who is immune to the difficulties of life. We know life has been made very difficult as a result of the fall of man recorded in Genesis 3. The ground we tread is cursed because of man's sin. There is great difficulty in rearing children and all of our relationships have been made incredibly difficult. All because of man's transgression against his Creator.
It is very clear from Scripture that life brings us many trials. We deal with failing grades, difficulties at work and problems in our relationships. Christians face persecution in its many forms. All humans face sickness and face the ever present enemy: death.
As Christians, we know from James 1 that the testing of our faith (trials) produces endurance. In other words, we grow in our ability to stand tall with confidence in the Lord in the midst of our many trials. Just prior to this statement, James told his readers, consider it all joy...when you encounter various trials. We can consider it all joy because we know that our trials produce endurance and that endurance will have its perfect result: our sanctification. Enduring many trials and tribulations makes us more like our Lord Jesus Christ.
The problem is that we are weak. More often than not, in the midst of our trials, we simply fail. We fail to react in a godly way. We fail to trust in the Lord. We fall back and become fearful; but our Lord doesn't intend it to be this way for the Christian! We have been redeemed. We have been given confidence in the Lord! We find great reward in holding on to the that confidence. Our lives can be very difficult; but we know that Christ is our Solid Rock and if Christ is for us, then who can be against us? And this we know and have confidence in that our Lord is going to return in victory.
In summation, in the midst of our lives as we experience tribulation, we may fail; but those trials (and our failures) are used by our Master to make us into the His own likeness from glory to glory; because we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.
I have been encouraged by the words from the second verse of the song, "Here I Am" by downhere. I hope it will be encouraging to you as well:
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