Sifting to Secure the Success of the Saved
Peter was to be sifted so that he could thereby be sanctified; and then become useful to help his fellow Believers grow stronger. What satan meant for evil would end up being a great blessing to many.
Peter was to be sifted so that he could thereby be sanctified; and then become useful to help his fellow Believers grow stronger. What satan meant for evil would end up being a great blessing to many.
Are God’s blessings available to those living outside of God’s will? Are God’s blessings available to those who have no intention to obey His Word?
Business deals are not inherently wrong. But it is equally obvious that the worldly business practices of worldly men are worldly instead of godly. Thus, the goals of Believers are often diametrically opposed to those with whom they must do business.
How then can a Believer navigate the world of business in a way that honors God?
When God calls on us, will we show up? Or will we be missing in action? Our responses to God reveal to us, and everyone watching, what we think of Him. Our responses will reveal if He really is our God. Our responses will reveal whether we believe He is good, fair, just, and worthy of our love.
Both righteousness and sinfulness are results of our posture to God, our attitude to the Almighty. The depth of our desire to serve God determines whether we walk in righteousness or stumble in sinfulness.
Waiting for God to respond to our urgent petitions is often a challenging experience. We pray to Him hoping for a quick answer. But things rarely happen as quickly as we would like. Therefore, we must wait.
Psalm 13 captures the emotional and spiritual strain that Believers often experience while waiting on God and gives us insight on how to cope.
Carnal Christians are not good at making judgments because self/flesh-centered biases, like beams in their eyes, make it impossible to see clearly. However, those that “are spiritual”, those that are mature in Christ, have the light of God coming into their “eyes” and they can see what needs to be done.
It is not that God has difficulty hearing us, it’s that we have difficulty hearing Him. Prayer is really a means by which God prepares our hearts and minds to “hear” Him, i.e., to perceive His will.
God still loves the fool. Even though the fool has rejected God, God desires to rescue the fool from His folly, so that he can know the Truth and be saved.
For Esau, The Birthright (the privilege of God working through him to establish a holy nation) was not priceless. There was a situation in which he would be willing to sell his Birthright.
For Esau, present physical need was more important than future spiritual gain.