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Title:
"Joy
in Divine Testing"
Author: JoanY,
JoyPals.com-ReformedWomen, Editor-Publisher
"Wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations: 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 1:6-7
In "The Joy of Divine Testing,1/
Ruvolo quotes Scot McKnight:
"For Peter, the reason
the Christians were suffering was because they had the results of
salvation in their lives, and their Christian living was not grating
against a sinful society . . . Suffering, when properly understood and
applied, is the wake following behind salvation's boat."
2/
We can see from that quote that "persecution" in all of
its forms, is part and parcel of the Christian life. Surely if we are a
saved people, having been "born anew," and are being obedient children
of God, we will live under persecution. It is not optional or something
that we can choose not to suffer as His children. It is something we are
promised. Thus said, we anticipate it and prepare for it by
putting on "the whole armour of God" so that we can stand against it.
Ruvolo says,
"Scripture
affirms that suffering in the form of persecution is a natural result of
Christian living."3/
Thus, it is as sure as God's Word
and there is not one child of God that will not suffer it but thanks be
to God, He has given us "everything for life and godliness" so that we
can bear it, stand up to it, and rejoice during it.
With this promise in mind that "all who live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution," Ruvolo takes us into various kinds of persecution
and helps us make distinctions regarding it including whether some of
the trials, testings, sufferings that come upon us are of our own making
by our own actions or whether they are the result of godly faithful
living. She further counsels us to be sure that we are living a life of
obedience and that the persecution suffered is because of an obedient
life and not an
obnoxious witness or a failure to be biblical Christians.
Ruvolo continues,
"The message of 1 Peter is one of hope and
encouragement for Christians who are doing their jobs."4/
In other words, Peter is saying, if you are living a life that is
obedient to Christ, trusting Him, being His ambassador for the gospel,
being distinctly different from the world, having a Christian world and
life view, following Jesus in all things, not the world, taking on His
characteristics and walking in His paths, you will suffer persecution
and that persecution will cost you something. It may be your own
desires, your family, your children, your church, your health, your
wealth and even maybe your life but it will cost you something. Jesus
says that "in the world you will have tribulation" and that we will
"suffer" as He suffered. We will suffer loss, we will be forsaken by
others, we will suffer the sinful acts of others, we will be delivered
up to councils, we will walk in the narrow path that He walked, taking
up our cross and following Him. This is the life that He has called us
to. A life of giving of ourselves for others, suffering all of those
things that He and our brethren saints have suffered but, as we suffer,
we are to be "of good cheer" because He has overcome the world, the
flesh and the devil for us so that we have an inheritance, immovable,
eternal in the heavens, forever, which cannot be shaken or taken away.
We are promised persecution but we are also promised everything to help
us in
that persecution that we might glorify God as His afflicted offspring.
Our God is a faithful God, ordaining from eternity past all things for
our good and His glory so that we triumph in all of our sufferings. As
our brother the Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:1-5:
"1 Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this
grace
wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not
only
so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh
patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope
maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by
the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."
Isn't this just glorious? Here is what Christ
is doing with us in these tribulations, persecutions, trials and
suffering. He is working patience, experience, hope, strengthening our
faith and resting our lives in His hands. We glory in them because we
are "suffering for His sake." We should be "turning the world upside
down for Christ." As Ruvolo says, when we "stand firm in God's grace"
the "sparks are flying." Can we say we are "not set on simmer" but our
witness is "boiling" and the "sparks are flying" for
Christ? Ruvolo exhorts us and asks, "are you part of the group to
whom Peter is speaking? Are you generating a few sparks because
your Christian witness is boiling?"5/
Or, are we like the unbelievers who have no hope or a Christian who
compromises with the world so that we do not suffer and our sparks have
been snuffed out by our conformity with the world and its practices? We
must examine ourselves and our lives to be sure that we are "being
conformed to the image of Christ" and not conforming to the world. The
sparks surely must be flying if we are obedient disciples of
Christ.
Ruvolo encourages us, as does Peter in these verses, that we rejoice in
the midst of our suffering, trials, and persecutions because they are but
for a moment in time and not be compared to the glory that awaits us.
Ruvolo says,
"In the light of eternity, they can
indeed be perceived as "momentary, light affliction (2 Corinthians
4:17). And in the light of God's sovereignty, they can be received as
integral elements in the outworking of God's ultimate purpose."6/
As I read and studied this chapter, I was reminded time and time again
of the saints in "Foxes Book of Martyrs" and how they truly went through
suffering of body, mind and spirit and even horrific death but the
encouragement of their witness, their testimony of faith and God's
provision of grace and perseverance in the face of incredible trials and
sufferings cause us to rejoice. We have not in our 21st Century
lifestyle suffered as these have or as Christ and His disciples did, but
we will surely suffer persecution as promised. It may be subtle
persecution that tears at the heart and mind; it may be painful
suffering of body that is for a lifetime; it may be the suffering of
loneliness and abandonment; it may be the suffering of loss of children,
family or friends; it may be the suffering of not being wanted or needed
by the body of Christ; it may be suffering for standing for biblical
truth, and it may be the suffering of wrongdoing in the past that cannot
be righted; but we will suffer and we will be refined as gold, and we
will survive it by the power and almighty providence of God and we will,
because of His glorious grace, reach the glory that awaits us in His
presence forevermore. The suffering of this life is nothing, a breath,
a vapor, compared to an eternity of perfection and perfect love and
contentment with Him. Be encouraged as you read this that your God who
loves you so, will equip you to stand firm and strong in the face of
persecution and bring you safety through it for His glory and your good.
* * *
_____________
1/ Lesson#2, “Grace to
Stand Firm, Grace to Grow, Carol J. Ruvolo, P&R Publishing Co. p. 27.
2/ Ibid.
3/ Ibid.
4/ p.29
5/ Ibid.
6/ p. 32
___________
JoanY, ReformedWomen, Excerpt from "My Summary and Comments," "Grace
To Stand Firm" study, November 2003.
I would highly recommend this book.
It is available through
http://www.cvbbs.com or
http://www.prpbooks.com --JoanY
JoyPals.com-ReformedWomen
Editor & Publisher,
“Heavenly Notes 2003”
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