“We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God” Acts 14:22
God’s people will encounter many hardships.
It was never God’s intention when He chose His people that they would be untested. They were never chosen just to experience worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of being mortal was never promised them. But when their Lord wrote the charter of privileges, He included discipline among the things which they would inherit.
Hardships are a part of our allotment. They were predestined for us. As surely as the stars are fashioned by His hands and their orbits fixed by Him, so surely are our hardships allotted to us: He has predestined their season and their place, their intensity, and their effect on us.
So-called “good” people must never expect to escape troubles. If they do, they will be disappointed, because none of their mothers and fathers in faith have been without troubles. Remember the patience of Job! Remember also Abraham, for he had his share of difficulties, but by his faith through them he became the “Father of the faithful.” And you’ll find that as you read the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, not one of those who God made a vessel of mercy didn’t also have to pass through the fire of adversity. God declared that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the King’s distinguishing royal mark.
But although hardship is the path of God’s children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has walked it before them. They have His presence and sympathy to encourage them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure. When we reach the Kingdom, we are assured that it will more than make amends for the “many hardships” through which we passed through to enter it.
Question: Which hardships are you going through now, and how can you see God being glorified through them?
by Charles Spurgeon
Used by Permission
Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2008.
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