Through Many Tribulations

 As I have said many times, life is not easy. I am sure we all know that, but what are we supposed to do? Should we go through life fretting over our troubles? Should we try to cover up the pain and act like everything is OK when it isn't? If we approach life in either of those ways, we will be miserable. That is not what God wants for any of us. He has a much better way for us to go through life and thrive.

When Paul went on his missionary journeys, he was all about preaching the gospel to the Jews and the Gentiles, so they could come to know Jesus and have eternal life. However, he also went back to the churches he had helped to start to check on the new believers. (Acts 14:22) He was strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and telling them, "We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God." This shows us what we need to do today.

To live our lives well and thrive, we must have strong souls. Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. We must constantly be reading God's Word, so we can sharpen our mind with God's wisdom and God's ways. We must let the Spirit strengthen our will, so we do the right things and not the wrong things. We must allow the Spirit to renew our emotions, so we feel like God designed for us to feel about things. Then, we will  have strength to face the tribulations of life. 

Also, we need to be steadfast in our faith by taking life one day at a time, trusting the Lord in each thing that comes along. We must not try to do it by ourselves. We can trust God in the big things and the small things, praying about everything. Finally, we need to keep our eyes on heaven, the kingdom of God. Yes, we have tribulations here, but we are going to enter the kingdom of God one day. That is our destination. Therefore, we don't focus on our troubles. We focus on our eternal home.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Acts 15-17.