“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
It’s difficult for the unbeliever to understand our confidence in our Lord and God, even in tribulation and affliction. Instead of asking, “Why me?” we look for God’s eternal purpose. There are no accidents, coincidences, or acts of fate to those who belong to the Lord. Our lives are in His hands. And although it may seem He is far, we know He is near. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35) “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
We are confident He steers all things, even the difficult times for our benefit. In those times we see His glory and might on our behalf. In those times we see our weaknesses, our defects and need. He opens our eyes of understanding and makes us see our sin and our need for Him. In those times we prove our faith or fail miserably. Either way, our Lord is still near. He is still teaching us His way. “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (1Peter 1:7)
Whenever I think of affliction, I always think of the persecuted Christian in some countries. They lose family, homes, community, work and/or even country for the sake of Christ. They remain devoted to the Lord through extreme hardship. This is beyond the understanding of human reasoning. But our relationship with the Lord is more real and more valuable than anything this world offers. And they risk all to follow the Lord. “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2Corinthians 4:15-18)
It's the love shed in our hearts. It’s the confirmation by the Holy Spirit. It’s a miraculous change that cannot be seen outwardly yet, but a knowing that there is a God, Who loves us, Who is for us and not against us and Who has given us the most precious gift of all. It’s freedom from the bondage of this world. It’s a unity in the spiritual with the Lord. And it’s undeniable. It’s a weight off our shoulders. At first, we don’t understand it at all, we can’t explain it, but we know it’s real. We have been moved out of the captivity of the kingdom of sin and death to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins:” (Colossians 1:13-14) This immediate change is felt in our spirits, souls and bodies. We can’t explain it. But things are different. And that’s because we are no longer held slaves to sin and darkness.
Another immediate change is that the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts. To understand this, we need to know that the Godhead is Father, Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Three separate individuals Who are One. And it’s important to understand that we are three-part beings; spirit, soul (mind, will and emotions) and body. God the Holy Spirit indwells in our spirit man. He is One with the Father and Jesus. It’s God living in us, God communicating His way in us and God influencing us. When we listen and obey the Holy Spirit, it influences our soul and body to obey the spiritual. When we instead allow ourselves to be influenced by this world and the flesh, it influences our soul and body to follow the world and to sin. This is hard to understand in our limited knowledge of this world. But in God’s world, it’s possible. When we become children of God, our life begins the process of being one in Christ and the Father. Jesus prayed, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” (John 17:20-21) This cannot be understood fully here on earth. It’s a divine principle we will fully understand later.
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