Treasured Truth

Suffering always has a purpose.  As we study Revelation 13, we’ll realize that sometimes our suffering is actually related to our redemption.  When God allows us to suffer, He’s not trying to destroy us.  He’s trying to develop us.  But in order to understand the process, we have to see suffering from God’s perspective.

When we strive toward spiritual maturity, God rewards us.  Simply because we belong to Him, He gives us things that we don’t deserve.  And as a result of us even making the effort to do what He want us to do, He gives us what we need to become who He wants us to be and so He can give us what He wants us to have.

Do you want to go up to the next level in your spiritual maturity?  Then you have to grow up.  And you have to trust the Lord, fear the Lord, honor the Lord, and accept the Lord’s discipline.  And then what will happen?  You’ll have stability, tranquility, prosperity and you’ll understand your adversity.

What we’re tuned into, becomes what we are turned into.  And according to Pastor Ford, if we keep inundating our minds with the mess that the world provides as entertainment, that’s how we’re going to program our minds to think.  We’re going to disregard the mind of Christ and we’ll instead be utilizing the mind of the world.

If we desire for God to elevate us, or bring us to the next level in our spiritual maturity, then we need to understand that He doesn’t give us anything to us for any reason other than who we are to Him.  So, we must become to Him what He wants us to become so that He gives us what He wants to give us.

When we look at the difference between joy and happiness, we learn that joy is produced by the Holy Spirit; happiness is produced by the human spirit.  And so, if it’s independent of circumstances, joy is not impacted by what’s happening around us or to us.  Joy is what’s happening through us.

When we seek to understand joy, we’ll discover that joy changes our attitude, our affections, and it helps us with the way we act and respond to the circumstances in our lives.

Part of understanding joy is considering its source.  Our joy is based on our relationship with God and it is born in us by the Holy Spirit.  Joy elevates us in the presence of God.  It controls our worship of Him, even when we’re going through difficult times and situations.

We’ve been learning that grace has many benefits.  Today Pastor Ford will share how grace transforms our tears into triumph, our gloom into glory, our weakness into strength, our barrenness into fruitfulness, our worries into worship and our heartaches into hallelujahs!

If you’re committed to God, then you’ll be committed to His word.  If you’re committed to His word, you will walk in His ways.  If you walk in His ways, then you’ll avoid those people who refuse to walk in His ways and obey His word.  Learn more as we begin a new study in Psalm 1.