The Refuge Devotional

BY

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” James 1:2 NASBS

The word of God, set forth in the Scriptures, teaches and prepares us for every circumstance that we must face each day. For those who are in Christ, it is a fact that the God of the universe allows trial to come into our lives to sanctify us and conform us into the image of His beloved Son, Jesus. The Bible tells concerning Jesus Himself, “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” So then, servant of the cross, the Lord empties us before He fills us. He makes room for Himself, for His love, and for His grace. He dethrones our rival heart by casting down the idols that seek to occupy our body, which is the temple for which the Holy Spirit has made His abode. The temple, which is our body, is to illuminate the radiance of His own inexpressible glory so that He will be glorified in this body that is fading away. For this purpose, He brings the soul into great predicaments to lay it low. He does this only to teach and discipline it for richer mercies, higher service, and greater glory.

So, praise God for His grace in using trials to make us long for heaven. For if it were left to us, we would be content in this earthly body enjoying the fleeting passions of our fleshly desires. So, consider the present-day sufferings as a preparation for future glory. This will greatly lessen the pain, reconcile the heart with the suffering, and materially tend to secure the important purpose for which it was sent. The life of a believer must be defined in his mind as a discipline for heaven. Therefore, Christian, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” So come now Christian, whatever you may be facing today enter it with joy knowing that you will one day be with Him, that is Jesus, who defeated sickness and death. May we be strengthened by the words of Octavius Winslow, “Every infirmity overcome, every sin subdued, every weight laid aside, every step advanced in holiness, does but strengthen and mature the life of grace below until it is fitted for, and terminates in, the life of glory above. Let the suffering believer, then, see that he emerges from every trial of the furnace with some dross consumed, some iniquity purged, and with a deeper impression of the blessed Spirit’s seal of love, holiness, and adoption on his heart.”