There is an old saying that only the dead have seen the end of war and while that is true in the physical world, in the spiritual world the quote would look somewhat different. In the spiritual I would say, only through Faith can we see the end of war!
“strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.” – Acts 14:22
To learn to Rest in Him you need to see His Great Love for you and have Faith that He knows what He is doing. In order to get to that Resting place, many hardships must be endured. The sooner you get that the hardships are doing two basic Very necessary spiritual functions, the sooner the hardships aren’t all that hard.
The first function of hardships is to create “God sufficiency” or in other words to show us our need for Him. This is the purpose of the law and the reason for many of the challenges we must endure especially when we first come to following Him. These moments of spiritual challenge are meant to create the idea that “His Grace Is Sufficient For Me” and as that spiritual Faith based knowledge grows, so grows His Peace!
The second function of hardships is to smooth off the rough edges that keep us from truly Being in His kingdom on a moment to moment basis. The kingdom of God IS as close as our willingness to leave ourselves and Be with Him. Leaving ourselves means leaving ideas of religiosity and other “doings” that we think or have been taught get us close to Him. In leaving these ideas we begin to Rest in the idea that He lives in us Now and Always – in this Rest we find His Peace based on His Finished work on the cross. Being IN His kingdom is therefore a realization of Not our doing but His Did and the rough edges are things are ideas of personal goodness or badness that keep us stuck in a revolving door of continual pain instead of being healed “by His stripes!”
In every hardship, look first for the lesson that draws you into a deeper knowledge of His Perfect Love and Ability. Secondly, know this, the greater the hardship the greater you will see His deliverance and the greater you will grow in Faith, IF you look up and acknowledge He Is in control of ALL things!
