Have you noticed the plethora of voices out in “Christendom” begging people to embrace Christ by insisting life as a Christian is next to perfect? Many of them assert that once you accept Christ into your life, if you just have enough faith, your troubles will fade away. Well it’s true faith can move mountains, heal the sick, and has even raise the dead, but life as a Christian will NEVER be perfect. As long as we live in these sinful bodies, and in a world where Satan is alert and active, we WILL suffer trials. We will also grow in faith if we face each one properly. In the following example of just one day in the life of the Apostle Paul, he preached the gospel, healed a man lame from birth, begged a crowd not to sacrifice animals to him (and Barnabus), was slandered by a group of Jews–enough that the same crowd stoned him and dragged him out of the city for the wild animals to eat. Later, he returned to the city to face the people again… Was Paul less of a Christian than our modern day believers?
“Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city…” Acts 14:18-20
Even Jesus, God’s only Son, faced unbelievable trials all through His days on the Earth. Was His life not “righteous” enough? Was His faith lacking? Absolutely not! We WILL face trails in this life… the only question is how will we respond?
In Christ,
PastorJimKilby @Kilbin8er Jim@JamesKilby.com