Power and Hardship

So here we are at the kick off of my Blog for those who are interested! This Blog is not meant to tell you what to think, it is meant to get you started. My desire is that through my writings I may be a help and an encouragement to you and others. I don't claim to have all the answers, I do claim to hear from God and have a passion to figure out as much as I can. I am on a journey and I do not plan to ever stop growing on this adventure. I write not to simply tell you about me, but I write so that we may be able to walk together. So that we may have this adventure as a team, as a family. Are you ready to start...if not I'm goin anyway! :-)

I would like to look at 2 different verses from the Bible today, they can be found in the book of Acts, in chapter 14. The First verse is verse 3 and it says:

"But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly

about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their

message was true by giving them power to do miraculous

signs and wonders."

First, I think that we should see that God gave the apostles power to 'back up' the message of Jesus Christ! The good news is just a story without power! I mean it would be a little weird to tell people that Jesus has the power to heal and free you from your bondages and addictions, but He doesn't actually do it anymore...that sound even more crazy after I wrote it down, I mean did He just get bored of healing and helping people and said something like, "sorry but the rest of you people will just have to wait till I come back to get everyone"?! No He didn't. But lets look at the second verse now.

The second verse i want to talk about is also found in Acts chapter 14, verse 22. It says:

"...They encouraged them to continue in the faith,

reminding them that we must suffer many hardships

to enter the Kingdom of God."

I find this very interesting because it says that "we MUST suffer MANY hardships". Many times I find that people focus very much on the negative side of things and even, in a sense, bless sicknesses and poverty and suffering. But here are some questions to ask, how many sicknesses did Jesus ever bless? How many poor people did he ever say we shouldn't help to get into a better economic state (that means get more money!)?! How often did Jesus or the apostles rejoice about being tortured, killed, and falsely accused? Even when people were rejoicing after being beaten it was not because they suffered, it was because they were living for Christ! The reason people were and are tortured for Christ is because the Spirit of God is moving powerfully enough in those people to have an effect on the world around them. The would rejoice because God was using them not because they got to feel pain. A lot of Christians have a sado-masochistic (self-destructive) Christianity! That is not what Jesus had in mind. We rejoice for the joy set before us, we endure not enjoy our torture, just as Jesus did with the cross.

Looking at both of these verses makes me think about how even in the midst of powerful and miraculous signs and wonders that give life to our Message of Christ, we can be in hardship. In fact I would say it may be because of the powerful life in Christ that suffering can come to you. Think of it like this, if you are no trouble to the demonic realm then why waist time with you? It is when you are doing good that the attacks come. But let me end with this. We encounter hardship when we have a powerful walk with Christ but we should not seek out to suffer. We can rejoice because our God is always bigger than any hardship! And remember this that hardship and trials and suffering are not supposed to be a lifestyle, they are meant to show you how strong God has made you. Any evil that comes to you you are meant to overcome.

Romans 12:21 says:

"Don't let evil conquer you,

but conquer evil by doing good."

We are Built for Victory.

We are Empowered to Overcome.

We are Adopted into Blessings.