After reading my Bible online this morning at Blue Letter Bible, I read Bob Hoekstra’s entry in Day By Day Grace. I find his devotionals to be consistently uplifting and biblical. Here is a succinct nugget of wisdom from The Comprehensive, Freely Giving Plan of God:
“His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3a). All that it takes to live as God intends and to grow in godliness as He desires has already been given to us in Christ. As we continue to get to know the Lord, all that He has given us in Christ is progressively brought into our experience: “through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3b). (emphasis added)
So often people think hard thoughts of God when troubles come, as if God owes them prosperity and a trouble-free life, forgetting that:
All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. – Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question and Answer 19. (Genesis 3:8,10,24, Ephesians 2:2,3, Galatians 3:10, Lamentations 3:39, Romans 6:23, Matthew 25:41,46
God rescues people from the BAD they deserve, and gives them, through Christ, the GOOD they don’t deserve. This kind of puts problems in a new perspective, doesn’t it?