Temporary
Praise to God for a Living Hope
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These 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. 8Though 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, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Bee's Thoughts:
Bee's Thoughts:
People always say "seeing is believing". However, believing in what one can see is no longer called faith. Faith is believing in what he/she has not seen.
Romans 10:17 says, "17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." The faith that Christians have in God is not a blind faith. It follows the law of consistency about God. When we read the Bible, we will begin to see the character of God and thereby our faith starts to grow even though we have not seen Him. It's the same as when we say we have faith that someone can do well or he/she will not betray us. We have such faith because we have come to personally know this person by way of communication and have seen the person's consistency in good performance.
Therefore, even when we are suffering we can still havehope and faith in God. For we know that our suffering will not last, only tough Christians do.
Dear Lord,
Thank You for reminding us to have faith in You inspite of sufferings. For such sufferings are only temporal and they are here to test our endurance. May my faith continue to grow each day.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Tommy's Thoughts:
We can get pretty lost and discouraged by situation or condition in our lives that we thought it is our final experience. Whenever we think our pain or trial will never leave us and continuing to torture our lives, we need to turn to God’s Word where He has promised to always be with us and to supply us with His strength and patience to endure.
God also ensures our suffering is temporal and that He will not allow them to ‘destroy’ us. When we truly submit to Him in times of trouble, we’ll know that God is able to achieve greater good in our lives and provide us with the joy and hope of an eternal life with Christ.
Dear Father, thank You for the joy, confidence and hope You offered to me through Your Word. Lord, forgive me at times for the lack of trust in You when I face difficult problems in life. I pray that You will keep my head up, renew my commitment to You, continue to obey and hold firmly to my faith in You to restore everything perfect again one day. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.
