“In our day, anxiety has become one of the significant ailments of our world. Yet it is also a signal, an alarm that something is desperately wrong in our world… Seeds contain the imprint of the trees that they will eventually become. However, for seeds to grow, they must sprout past what is called the coat. That is the protective …
“We cannot read God’s favor or disfavor by assessing how troubled a person’s life is… Suffering reveals the genuineness of faith in Christ. And suffering produces genuine faith. For example, when you struggle under affliction, the Psalms become real. True faith deepens, brightens, and grows wise. You grow up in knowing God… Suffering is both the acid test and the …
“We know what God has said to the Satan, what the Satan has said to God, and what God has decreed for Job. We know that Job’s sufferings are not because he is an impenitent sinner but precisely because he is a real and faithful believer. We know that Job is not the story of everyman but the story of …
It is not that Christians are to “give thanks” with a plastic smile, saying things are wonderful when they are hard. It is knowing that the hard things are really hard things, a result of the abnormality since the Fall, yet not revolting against God when the hard things come. It is in this sense we are to say “thank …
