Triumphant Living Part 5

Endure hardship. 2 Timothy 2:3  This does not mean grin and bear it. It does mean that a difficult season permitted by God (and not the result of our own sin) is a necessary step into the fulness of God’s promise.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12 The promise of blessing is for those who go through persecution. If they persecuted the prophets, who are we to think we will be exempt from hardship. But what God permits is always redemptive. We are not talking about the consequences of our sins, we are talking about the redemptive purposes of God through all of life’s seasons.