“I don’t understand the reasons for suffering and persecution. I don’t know why the churches in one part of the world bear terrible pain and deprivation while other churches are fat and rich and almost pain free. I don’t know why some of the young evangelists who gathered in Amsterdam in 1983 carry scars from where they have been beaten and burned for Christ’s sake while my life has been free from physical persecution. I don’t know why Corrie ten Boom watched her sister die in prison or Joni Eareckson Tada is paralyzed from the neck down–while I have never known a night in jail and I can run the beaches or walk the mountain trails freely.
Perhaps you have faced pain or suffering you did not understand. You may even have become angry at God for allowing it to happen when others seem to have escaped such problems. But don’t let the acids of bitterness eat away and destroy you. Instead, learn the secret of trusting Christ in every circumstance…
I was traveling in an Eastern European country recently. The Orthodox priest who accompanied me while there said, ‘Every believer has a cross. I know what ours is. But I wondered what yours was.’ And looking out over the crowd of reporters he said simply, ‘Now I know!’
All I know from the short letters in Revelation is this: Christ commands us to ‘Overcome!’ in the strength He alone can supply as we turn to Him in faith, trusting His promises.”
“…for I have learned how to be content [satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted] in whatever state I am…I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want. I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.”
Philippians 4:11-13 (Amp)
Author: Billy Graham
Source: “Approaching Hoofbeats” Word, Inc
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