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Word of the Day

God Doesn't Wear Costume Jewelry

Count it all joy when God puts you to the test. The test is God's method to show us who and what we are and what we know. We have false images of ourselves. James warns us to not forget what manner of man we are.

Are we counting it all joy? There is no temptation taken us, but such as is common to man. God is faithful, Who will not suffer us to be tempted past what we are able to stand and will, with every temptation, make the way of escape.

Wouldn't it be great if the verse ended with, "...will...make a way to escape?" But the verse continues, "...that ye may be able to bear it." Most of the time, the "escape" is the ability to endure, to stand up under, to finish the refining process, so that our faith can be made perfect and entire, lacking nothing. How many of us are like Israel, we run away in the midst of the trial, and then have to go around the mountain one more time? Some of us, after forty years, still haven't learned the lesson God is trying to teach us! Yet God is merciful and He'll take us around the mountain one more time. Are we able to embrace the trials and rejoice in them? Or do we just want out from under the pressure?

Many of us would like to be those man-made diamonds, so we don't have to endure years and years of pressure. But God doesn't wear costume jewelry. We are His precious stones, the church of God. He's putting pressure on us to purify and refine us. He's coming back for a church that is without spot or wrinkle. Don't feel inferior or bad because you want out. We all want out of the pressure. It's natural in every one of us. No one rejoices in the pain. We rejoice in the results of the glory of God, as we see from the eternal perspective.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

The word "strive" means to agonize or labor fervently. We must be temperate in everything else, except where our true prize is, Christlikeness and the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 9:26-27
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Athletes compete for corruptible prizes, fame and fortune. But Paul said he kept under his body, lest when he had preached to others, he might be a castaway. "Castaway" means to experience rejection or to fail the test. We keep our bodies under to pass the test. We strengthen ourselves. We prepare for what's ahead because we will be tested. Paul said that he was pressing on toward the mark, the prize and high calling of God. We don't want to be like those who failed the test in the wilderness!

1 Corinthians 10:5
"But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness."

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