I Peter 1: 6-7 (NLT) ~ 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
God is an expert at bringing good out of bad. He could have kept Paul out of prison in Philippi but instead He let Paul go to prison and the jailer became a believer as a result.
God could have kept Jesus from the cross but He let Him go — His own Son — He let Him suffer and die. Did He bring any good out of that? I’d say He did!
The things you wish were most removed from your life are often the very things that God is using to shape you and make you into the believer of character He wants you to be. He wants to use that problem for good in your life. There’s something more important than your pain. It’s what you’re learning from that pain. God is in control.
So what’s the key? What’s our response? Our response is to look past the pain. “This is the reason we never lose heart. These troubles which are temporary are winning for us a permanent, a glorious and solid reward out of proportion to our pain. So we don’t look at the temporary situation. We look beyond to see the eternal benefits.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 Phillips)
~Youversion.com Daily Devotional Reading plan by Rick Warren, Saddleback Church http://www.saddlebackresources.com
Just Love 