This weekend I am in Georgetown, Kentucky visiting some friends. Filled with excitement I took off and fifteen minutes it began to rain. And it rained some more. And when I thought it could not rain anymore, it did. More than that, my GPS decided to quit along the way, so I drove about half of the trip blindly until it booted up again. Despite all of these difficulties and annoyances I continued on the way... I was ready to see these friends, to spend time with them, just to hang out with them. And so far the trip has been completely worth it.
You know I was reading the Word this morning and came across a passage that really got me to thinking. How many difficulties and annoyances am I willing to endure and go through for my faith? 2 Timothy 2:3 "You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Hardship is not simply something that might happen to us as we pursue the Lord. It is something that we Must and most certaintly Will endure. You see the Devil is all the time trying to tear us down... Pull us away from the Lord... Get us to fail Him, disown Him.... Just check out the Book of Job. But how much hardship are we willing to face? Many times I feel that we want or relationship with Christ to be easy. We want the road to be full of Sunshine and Blue skies instead of rain and thunder. But what kind of Journey is that? Where is the faith?
You see I feel that God uses these hardships to draw us to Him. He uses these times to grow us in our Faith. To give us a powerful testimony. To give us an opportunity to be a Witness to people. In the Book of Acts 16: 25-34 we find the Apostle Paul and Silas in Jail. V. 26 and earthquake hits the Jail and loosed all of the doors. Instead of escaping the Jail they all stayed V. 28. As a result of being in Jail and staying although they could have left "And he brought them out and said "Sirs what must I do to be saved?" So they said "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household." (V. 30-31) As a result this man and his family were all saved and baptized V. 33.
Look at David defeating Goliath as another such story. Look at the Israelite’s hardships as they Journeyed to the Promise Land. The life the Disciples lived. Paul's post conversion story life. The Bible is full of people who faced a multiple of hardships as they served the Lord, but through these times they changed lives, grew closer to God, and were content. You know of Lord also suffered the most cruel hardship on our behalf. He was perfect but because I am imperfect He had to take on the cross. He personally took on each and everyone of my sins. And because of this, because he choose to serve me by taking on my sins, by hanging on that Cross; I choose to suffer innumerable hardships on His behalf.
2 Timothy 1: 12 "For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day."
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