This week Michael writes: Some say “the future is as bright as the promises of God.” We often pray for a bright future of faith, hope and love. However, be careful for what you pray. One of God’s promises is “In this world you shall have tribulation.” But Jesus said, “be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” The meaning of hope and love is revealed only through God’s refining fire ... For tribulation, (mental pressure) works patience, and patience experience (tried and proven character) and experience hope, and hope makes not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.
God has a way of working that which men and women intended for evil and turning it to good. The final beatitude of Jesus says, blessed are they when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you for my sake, for great is your reward in heaven. The Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul, and Jesus revealed truth about suffering and the testing of faith. 1 Peter 4:12-13 says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
According to 1 Peter 1:6-7, “Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: In an essay called “one thousand gems,” there is no way to separate the wheat from the chaff except through threshing it out. There is no way to refine gold except through the fire of the furnace.
When the student is ready, the teacher will come. Jesus said to his disciples, I need to leave you so that the Holy Spirit will come…. He will teach you all things. The Holy Spirit is the “comforter”… the one who comes along side us to help us know and understand spiritual truth. What does the trial and pressure of tribulation teach us? The Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:3, we rejoice in tribulation… trial through tribulation reveals God’s proven character in us.
Galatians 5:22 says “for the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control. Against such there is no law. Pete recalls saying to himself, that’s the kind of fruit I want in my life.” How do we know we have the fruit of the spirit? Tribulation means pressure. Pressure squeezes out the essence of the fruit. Olive oil is produced in the olive press. The Garden of Gethsemane is the garden of the olive press. This is where Jesus himself retreated before his crucifixion. In the Garden of the Olive Press, Jesus was crushed by the weight of the cup of God’s righteous judgement on the sin of the world. In anguish, Jesus cried out to his Heavenly Father as the sweat poured from his brow, ‘as it were mingled with blood’, “Father, if there be any other way, please let this cup pass from me.” Three times he prayed this prayer, agonizing over the pain of separation, and God’s righteous judgement for the sin and iniquity of all mankind. Then he concluded his prayer, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”
Prayer is not aligning God’s will with my will. Instead, prayer is aligning my will with God’s will, and my heart with God’s heart. The answer to Jesus’ prayer is not revealed in the context of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden. The answer to this prayer is in Hebrews 12:2 when God showed His Son the joy of your salvation and mine: Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
The Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-19 says, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Let's continue Michael's message in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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