Good Morning All,
Isaiah 50:10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?" Great Christians are made by great trials. Pain, sorrow and failure are what produce men and women of God. Those with the greatest dreams are often the ones who receive the greatest trials. Eternal lessons seem to require hard places. As Scripture declares, the way we are made "perfect," or whole or complete, is by suffering ourselves from sin and self (Hebrews 2:10). First, God must take away all our external and internal supports other than Himself, then He can strengthen our inner man, enabling us to experience His fullness – that fullness of Himself we so desperately long for.
Inside every soul is a desire to be complete… It is what drives men and women to marriage and then to have a family. Yet many times, we wonder through life with the feeling of incompleteness, even emptiness at times. Why is this? Many times is because we have actually avoided the trials the Lord has allowed our way. It is not that the Lord seeks to hurt us, but rather the opposite, He seeks to love us and to bring us closer to Himself.
As we heard yesterday about the tabernacle – the main reason for it’s construction was so that God could dwell among His people. This is important to Him and it should be important to us, but it is impossible to be close to God when we have sin and/or selfishness in our life. I am not speaking about a need for sinless perfection, that will not be achieved until the Rapture of the Church.
So what are we to do today? It places us in a position to trust in and lean on the Lord in the times of darkness… In the days of trials we are lean on the Lord. I cannot tell you why people get sick, why families break up or why injuries occur other than being part of living in a depraved sinful world. Nevertheless, many of the things we go through, are actually for our benefit – it is a caring effort to bring us closer to Christ.
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:" I Peter 1:7
In all that is said and done, we know our faith can and will bring glory to God as well as ourselves closer to the Him. I hope and pray this is a blessing to you all and that this day you are closer to our Lord and Savior than the day before.
Til the Shout,
Dr. B.J. Stagner Jr.
Pastor
New Testament Baptist Church
