Hope For Today
Daily Encouragement for a Healing Heart from the Word of God
Deep pain and brokenness have a way of making Bible study difficult. To help bridge the gap and re-ignite our hunger for the Word of God, we’ve put together a daily devotional designed to help us all lean into God as we heal. May we seek Him daily!
Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life. Psalms 143:8 (NIV)
- Hope For Today
May 14 - 1 Peter 4:12-19
Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad – for these trials make you partners with Christ in His suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing His glory when it is revealed to all the world. If you are insulted because you bear the name of Christ, you will be blessed, for the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people's affairs. But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by His Name! For the time has come for judgement, and it must begin with God's household. And if judgement begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God's Good News? And also, "If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?" So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for He will never fail you!
Do we trust our life to the God who created us? Do we believe that He will never fail us? Or, do we sometimes allow our suffering to convince us He is no longer near, or He is not trustworthy? What a temptation it is to do just that. But the Bible warns us time and time again that a life lived following Jesus will be marked by suffering. Oftentimes it is not an indication of God's distance, but the very opposite – a sign of our unity with Him! For that reason, it's imperative we get to the root of what is causing our trials. It will be one of two things: Either we suffer because of our sin, or we suffer because we are partners with Christ. So let's resolve to do that today. Let's examine our lives. Let's ask God to reveal to us if our suffering is a result of our sin. If we come to Him with contrite hearts, He will reveal to us what we need to know! If He does reveal an error on our parts, may we be quick to confess and turn from it! However, if He reveals to us that our suffering is not the result of our own sin, but simply the price we pay for belonging to Him, may we find the strength to rejoice in that suffering! Our Lord suffered too. GREATLY! For us! He bore our sin, despite our constant betrayal of His unconditional love. So let's praise the Lord that we bear the privilege of being called by His name! Let's thank Him that His glorious Spirit rests upon us. Let's live with the hope we have in knowing what we suffer here on earth for Him is temporary and will fade away to nothing in the light of the eternal glory we will share with Him! If we find that we suffer in a manner that pleases God, may we be fiercely resolved to keep doing what is right and trust our lives to the God who created us! FOR HE WILL NEVER FAIL US!!!!
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