Paul urged Timothy to preach the word “in season and out of season.” The same goes for discipleship in general. We need to be faithful all of the time. After all, if the Lord can count on us only when His work is easy, what kind of service is that?
Who among us has not passed through something like Job’s darkness, a time when God is silent and not even one other person is willing to say anything but a discouraging word? The dead of the night is a hard time to endure.
A difficulty that is a problem to one person, another person thinks of as just an annoyance. It depends on what else you’re dealing with. That ache in your leg won’t seem like much of a problem if a day comes when you don’t have any legs at all.
The Christian gets the most out of this life that can be gotten. And when the goodness of this temporal world has been experienced and used to the Father’s glory, the Father Himself waits for us in eternity with His arms open wide.
The path of least resistance is what makes rivers crooked, and it makes men and women crooked too. The easy path never goes anywhere but downward, and spiritually, that is not the direction we want to go. Worthwhile destinations take extra effort.
Life isn’t always be easy. When we encounter serious obstacles on our way to heaven, we shouldn’t be surprised. This happens to be a hard world, and godly people aren’t going to get through it painlessly. Jesus certainly didn’t.
Our sorrow for past sins must be godly sorrow rather than the sorrow of the world. And a little defiance of the devil will help us. Our adversary wants us to be consumed and destroyed by our painful memories. He must not be allowed to get his way.
We can’t have the greater blessings without trading in some lesser things for them, and we should be willing to do that. As we grow, we should have a clearer vision of what we would relinquish in order to gain what we don’t yet have.
The crucial question is never “What have I done?” but “What does God have in mind for me in the future?” And more important, “Am I cooperating with what He has in mind for me?” That way of thinking about things can make all the difference.
It’s not wrong to indulge in nostalgia, but we must be careful not to overindulge. “Do not say, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For you do not inquire wisely concerning this” (Ecclesiastes 7:10). Life in Christ is about progress.