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  1. jan
    2 January 2018 @ 10:32 pm

    You ask great questions! The Lord has taught me so many lessons regarding question #2. Many, many times I have been confronted with this thought: are you willing for your blessings to be primarily spiritual? I am not saying that the Lord has not blessed me in the material realm because He has, but at the same time there have been many, many earthly difficulties and sorrows. Loss of relationships (including children and grandchildren), betrayals, a child who walked away from their profession of Christ, loss of health, etc.

    If I was an unbeliever this would have been totally devastating. These are the things that the world lives for and loves. But because of the Lord graciously saving me and helping me, upholding me and giving me hope in Him, I have been sustained through it all. I cannot put my hope in earthly things because in many cases they have been taken away, and yet what I have left is so much greater – spiritual blessings in Christ. Eternal salvation that cannot perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven.

    The loss of earthly things makes the spiritual riches more real and perhaps more valued? The world is seen for what it truly is a sinful, broken place. I am thankful that heaven is my true home, that Christ will be there and nothing can take this away from me. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. Scripture is a treasure because it tells us the truth about these things. Praise the Lord!

    Trials all have a purpose, like it says in 1 Peter 1:6-7, “Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

    • rcottrill
      3 January 2018 @ 6:51 am

      Eloquently said. Thanks for sharing. This is the kind of perspective on life we need. We can enjoy the good things of this life, but see it for what it is, flawed, and temporary. Better to root our value system in eternal values. God bless.