A Call To The Remnant

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 

We see that we are called to glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Can you imagine that? He glories in his suffering because of what he knows that it is producing. It is producing the very elements that we need to endure and overcome. We are being shaped by the Lord. Resigning our lives into His hands is our reasonable service. A superficial faith cannot abide the thought of suffering or any kind of deprivation.

The notion that one could end up in a dungeon whipped to within and inch of ones lives and yet still be praising God and thanking God and glorifying God in the midst of all of it rather than begging God to be relieved of our circumstances is an offense to many. Paul says that the power of God rested upon him as he gloried in his infirmities in 2 Cor 12:10. By the grace of God, His strength is made perfect in our weakness. This is why Paul would rather glory in his infirmities. He was so sold out to the notion of glorifying God that no matter what it took, then he was ready for that. This is the high water mark for us saints. To follow Jesus in such a manner is to have totally abandoned the flesh. Push on in deeper saint, may we decrease and may He increase.