PATIENT IN TRIBULATION
“Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer…”
—Romans 12:12
IN Q&A 27 OF the Heidelberg Catechism, we read the following words, “What do you understand by the providence of God? The almighty, everywhere-present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.”
THIS BIBLICAL TEACHING gives us a God-centered and God-glorifying perspective on life. It teaches us that the world is not out of control or operating by fate, luck, or chance, but that God is directing and controlling every event in this world –the good events as well as the evil. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14, “Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other.” The word translated “adversity” is the Hebrew word “Rah”, which can also be translated: bad, evil, affliction, calamity, or distress.
THEREFORE, WHATEVER WE see happening in this world we have to say, “This is the work of the Lord.” This is a truth we must understand, believe, and apply every day. And according to our text, it’s only when we are patient in adversity that we can truly say we have understood and applied this truth in our life. It's easy to say, “I believe in the providence of God,” but it’s quite another to live patiently when you’re experiencing adversity or suffering. For this reason, our text admonishes believers to “be patient in tribulation.” The word translated “tribulation” means “pressure”, and it refers to anguish, persecution, tribulation, affliction, or trouble. In other words, tribulation is a pressure which comes against us. It’s like being under the weight of a heavy object –that's why tribulation is so painful.
THERE ARE MANY forms of tribulation, but the ones we think of most often are sickness, disease, cancer, and death because these things threaten our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and they exert great pressure upon us which makes us hurt. But there are many other types of tribulation: family problems, marriage problems, money problems, difficulties at school, at church, or with a neighbor, and these troubles put a lot of pressure upon us –and none of us is free from trouble. Job 14:1, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” Life is filled with tribulation. Job 5:7, “Man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Just as sparks fly up from a fire so man will have trouble in life –one right after another. Nevertheless, every believer is called to “be patient in tribulation.”
HOW ARE YOU doing with patience amidst your trials? Do you become irritable, anxious, or angry at God, or do you rest assured that you are in God’s hand, and He is bringing you through this difficulty for His glory and your own good? Take time today to meditate upon our text and pray that the Holy Spirit strengthens you to endure tribulation with patience for God’s glory and the good of His church.
Tuesday Encouragement: April 1, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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A CHRISTIAN'S SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
My Father and My God,
Thank You, Father, for saving me from death, Hell, and Your coming wrath! Thank You, Lord Jesus, for living and dying in my place that I might be granted life everlasting. Thank You for fulfilling all the righteous demands of the Law of God in my place. Thank You for dying on the cross to satisfy the justice of God against my multitude of sins. Thank You for turning away God's wrath from me by absorbing it all in your body and soul on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21). As the hymn writer wrote, "Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the most defiled, By its transforming power, Making him God’s dear child, Purchasing peace and heaven, For all eternity— And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me!"
Thank You, heavenly Father, for Your forgiveness! Thank You that when I daily confess my sins to You that You are faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Thank You for Your kindness, mercy, grace, love, and compassion to such a sinful, weak, feeble, frail, fragile one such as I! Father, I love You! You have implanted Your love in my heart (Rom. 5:5). I love You because You first loved me (1 John 4:19). My love for You and for others is not what it ought to be. I realize and confess this sin to You. I know that I have not loved You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength! Nor have I loved my neighbor as myself. I am ashamed of my lack of love for You and my neighbor! I am ashamed of my sinful struggles in breaking Your Commandments. I fail daily to love You with my whole heart. I fail miserably! I have sinful thoughts, words, and actions, and even my best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled with sin! As the Apostle Paul wrote, "For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do" (Rom. 7:15).
But praise Jesus that He never failed to love You, Father, with His whole heart, soul, mind, and strength on behalf of His people. Even while Jesus suffered the inexpressible anguish, pains, and terrors of the cross, He loved you perfectly, O Father, on behalf of His sheep. Praise Jesus that He perfectly loved His neighbor as Himself in my place and on my behalf. What Amazing grace of Jesus that saved a wretch like me! For I once was lost but now I'm found, I was blind but now I see! I am a debtor to Your grace and mercy! As the hymn writer wrote, "A debtor to mercy alone, Of covenant mercy I sing, Nor fear, with God’s righteousness on, My person and off’rings to bring. The terrors of law and of God, With me can have nothing to do; My Savior’s obedience and blood Hide all my transgressions from view."
O LORD, I need Your constant forgiveness as I have not reflected Your glory as I ought. I need Your continual abiding presence and Your face shining upon me lest I slip into despair, discouragement, or depression! I need You every hour! Holy Spirit, fill me with Your power and presence so that I might live solely for Christ! Revive me again to serve You with zeal and vigor! All too often I find myself as frustrated as the Apostle Paul in that I often know the right thing to do, which is to abstain from a particular sin, but quickly fall right back into that sin. Yet because of Your grace, I am determined by the strength of the Holy Spirit to fight sin and overcome temptation. I "feel" the words of the hymn writer reverberating in my soul, "O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."
Bless me, O my great Jehovah, keep me in the palm of Your hand. Keep me from sinning against You! Keep me from drifting away from You, Heavenly Father! Keep me, O Father, keep me I pray, for I am Your slave!
I ask all these things in Jesus' name!
Amen!
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SUFFERING & THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD (1)
SCRIPTURE TELLS US that God ordains everything that comes to pass, and Lamentations 3:37 clearly illustrates this point, “Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?” The prophet Isaiah proclaims concerning the Lord, “And who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.” Clearly, nothing comes to pass that the sovereign God of Scripture has not ordained.
THE WORD ORDAINED comes from the Latin word “ordinare”, which means to order. Thus, the Scripture declares that God orders everything that comes to pass, and His eternal decree is the basis for everything that happens (Eph. 1:11). Scripture reveals that God has at least two purposes in everything He decrees: 1. His glory: “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). 2. The good of His elect people: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). The Scripture also reveals that the God of glory can do nothing that does not glorify Himself. He also cannot do anything that does not work for the good of His elect. God is omnipotent (all powerful); therefore, we must always be careful when we say that God is not able to do something. But we also must never be timid in proclaiming what the Scripture reveals concerning our sovereign God. He does all things for His own glory, and for the good of those whom He has given to His Son from before the foundation of the world (John 6:37). This is what God has revealed in His Holy Word, and so we must proclaim with all boldness that everything God ordains has its chief end in His glory and in the conforming of His elect people into the image of Jesus Christ.
SUFFERING, AFFLICTION, and tribulation are all used by God to conform the believer into the image of Jesus Christ; and our sovereign God ordains all such events to that end. 1 Peter 4:19 says that we suffer according to the will of God; “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” Knowing that any suffering experienced by believers is part of God's overall sovereign plan provides its own comfort. “What is your only comfort in life and in death? That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by His Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live unto Him” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A #1). All trials, tribulations, persecutions, slanders, reproaches and infirmities that inevitably come our way in this life are all ordained by our loving heavenly Father for the furtherance of the believer’s salvation.
Friday Devotional: March 28, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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CHRIST RULES OVER ALL
“Who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
—Hebrews 1:3
SCRIPTURE TEACHES that Jesus Christ upholds, preserves, and governs the world which He has made. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).
THEREFORE:
• ALL CREATURES: from the smallest creepy crawly insect which can be seen only by the microscope, to the archangel which worships before the eternal throne of God.
• ALL EVENTS: from the uprooting of a tiny hair of our head and the sparrow falling in a dense wooded forest, to the destruction of great nations by famine, pestilence, earthquake, flood, or war.
• ALL RULE AND AUTHORITY: from the city official, to the thrones, principalities and powers in the heavenly places.
• THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE: from the smallest subatomic particles which float in the beams of the sun to the greatest galaxies in our solar system —each, every, and all these things depend upon our Lord’s powerful providence.
AND IF ONE link in the chain of this dependence is broken, they would all rush headlong to destruction. Jesus has always governed this world, and He shall always hold the scepter over it until His last enemy is defeated and His Church is made victorious. For Jesus said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18), and Isaiah wrote the following words about Jesus Christ: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Therefore, the Psalmist writes, “Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name” (Psalm 30:4).
Tuesday Encouragement: March 25, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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