Wednesday, January 18, 2012
i really thank God for opening my eyes when i was reading romans 8!
i think i now understand better what it means to hope in Christ!
cos the passage was talking about how the sufferings (general suffering, rather than persecution) that we are going through now are not permanent, because God has promised that after suffering comes glory!
so what is this that we are supposed to hope in? we have the hope of redemption and adoption! this is what we have already received if we have placed our trust in Jesus. we will also have hope of being conformed to the image of Christ, and future glorification by God! haha it may not sound like such a big deal to a non believer, but to us Christians, we ought to rejoice! it is said that "the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us"; for it cannot even be compared to the reward we will have, which is much much greater! (:
suffering is always seen as a bad thing, but in romans, it says that suffering is part of the process of our conformity to Christs image and future glorification. and thus when we are suffering, we can see it as God caring for us (rather than the view that God doesnt care for us, because of our circumstances)! (:
this lesson was not something that i havent heard before, but i guess it never really sunk in, because i dont really have much major suffering! but after the bible study, we were given a case study about a random mary whose father was diagnosed with cancer. she was extremely involved in church and so is her family. but because of this incident, she was embarrassed when her friends asked her why God allowed this to happen to her, despite her love for Him and her service to Him.
i guess most of us would not blatantly say that because i believe in God, therefore my life should be smooth, but i realised that many of my actions seem to imply that deep down, i subconsciously believe it. ): for example, when it comes to grades, sometimes i may be tempted to wonder how come this person who was less active in serving God, and even put in less effort than me was able to do better than me! i mean, why is that even fair???
by saying this, we are already acknowledging that service to God is supposed to result in better circumstances, since we ARE serving him!
but i guess thats where i have misunderstood the gospel. the gospel is not revealed to us so that we will have worldly joy, but rather that we will rejoice in what is to come!
a funny example was brought up about a boy who said that his dad was going to get him a bicycle, when in fact his dad had said he was going to get him a bunny! (hehe) its funny how i sometimes expect things from God when he has never promised it to me in the first place! which is kinda silly now that i think of it. :P
i learnt today that the best testimony you can be is to be one that hopes in the future of glory and conforming to the image of Christ, even in the midst of our circumstances. it is learning to not let our joy of hope be reduced by our good and bad circumstances. in good times, i am sometimes too happy to remember that there IS a greater joy that is to come, and rather i rejoice in the temporary. in bad times, i often forget that despite this, i have eternal joy in God!
so pray for me and for everyone else who is facing this: that we will remember God's word when we are faced with the suffering, because it is honestly hard to look over and above our circumstances!
but we can have HOPE that God will bring this to our remembrance if we are His children (:
avoid the aliens;
5:07 PM
