Thursday Devotion

I just read this to David and he wanted me to post it. Please pray as we have a week to go before the MRI...

FACING REALITY
1 Peter 1:6
Verse 6 can be identified as a transition verse, as Peter is now moving from our
glorious salvation, to reality here on this earth. His words, "wherein ye greatly
rejoice"--are in reference to the time when we ultimately receive our inheritance in
heaven. As Wuest comments, "The saints are to rejoice in the last time, that is,
when they receive their glorified bodies at the Rapture." Now the word
"rejoice" is one that "speaks to extreme joy that expresses itself
externally in an exuberant triumph of joy." As we contemplate the final fulfillment
of our salvation, and we join the heavenly band, we ought to burst forth in rejoicing.
As the NLT reads, "There is wonderful joy ahead." And as Hillyer puts it,
"the prospect of the coming glorious consummation of salvation is one in which
believers have every right to greatly rejoice."
However, we live here in this world and the KJV reads, "Though now for a
season." The word "season" means--"little, small, few," and
refers here to a little while. Pause for a moment and read Romans 8: 18 and 2
Corinthians 4:17. From the view of eternity, our time here on this earth is not only
temporary, but very brief.
Then comes the stark reality of life--"If need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations" (KJV). Or we read, "even though it is necessary for you
to endure many trials for a while" (NLT). Hillyer has this to say, "The
expression all kinds refers to trials facing believers, and here translates the word
which literally means "many colored." Peter uses the word again in 4:10 to
describe God's grace. The only two occurrences of the word in this letter nicely balance.
Christians may have to face all kinds of troubles. But in whatever "color"
troubles appear, God's grace will always "match" them and prove perfectly
sufficient. Nevertheless, Peter's wording implies that the trials hat Christians have to
meet will sort out those who are full of faith from others whose profession is less than
wholehearted."
Now let me add some comments from Kenneth Wuest--"The words 'if need be' are
hypothetical, not affirmative. That is, they do not state that there is always a need
for the dark days, for testing times and difficulties. In some lives there seems to be
more need of trials than in others. To those servants of God whom He purposes to use in
a larger, greater way, many trials are allowed to come for 'we must be ground between the
millstones of suffering before we can be bread for the multitude.' And then, in the case
of a saint who is not living close to his Lord, it is necessary to send disciplinary
trials to purge his life of sin and draw him into a closer walk with God."
Some good thoughts on which to begin our day------Parson Brown