MAY 14, 2025 ~ FROM A PASTOR'S HEART

MAY 14 DEVOTIONAL BIBLE READING:  1 CORINTHIANS 8:1-7

Sitting and watching how God designed the natural world is quite amazing. From the butterfly who struggles to get out of the cocoon and in doing so strengthens its wings to fly. To the fawn who when born has wobbly legs and has to stagger around on them struggling until strength is built up in them. Even the birthing process for us humans is a struggle, yet in that struggle through the birth canal strength is built in that baby to breathe and move. We watch athletes who work hard training and even punishing their bodies to make them stronger in order to compete in their sports. Intellectual growth requires study and struggle in order to grow in knowledge and learn that which is needed. Being a disciple of Jesus takes discipline and sometimes leads to affliction and struggle, yet it is these very things that strengthen us to continue to follow Jesus.

We live in a day when people want everything to come easy. We evaluate whether something is a blessing from the Lord by how easy it was to get. It would not cross the minds of many modern followers of Jesus that going through the fires of affliction could be part of God's plan to make us stronger in Him. The Scripture tells us that these difficulties "test our faith" and make us stronger (James 1:3). Jesus told us that, "In this world you will have trials and tribulation...but He has overcome the world" (John 16:33). Peter tells us to not, "...think it strange the fiery trials that we go through..." (1 Peter 4:12). There is a God–given purpose in struggling and in hard times. They are there to make us stronger and to enable us to stand in the Lord, no matter what comes. We need to receive the times of struggling realizing that the Lord is using them to make us into what He wants us to be.

Please share your thoughts.