My DrEaMviLLe

          Here’s another amazing passage on TRIALS from my quiet time… I just think it is absolutely important to know how to handle pressure properly as it is one never-ending thing that will happen throughout our lives… It is time we take a break & really ponder upon how we’ve been taking on pressure all this time. Instead of looking on all the negativity from our trials, we should really think on the bright side, because I am a person who believes everything happens for a reason… Although it may take some time before we finally discover why we’ve been put through all these tests that seem too hard to take… I just hope to share this coming passage with everyone who is being let down by life’s journey that is filled with sufferings & endless pain…

Romans 5:1-5 (from New International Version Bible)

          Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

          What makes a shiny apple look so delicious? The skin, of course. But what is it about an apple that actually makes it delicious? The juice and substance inside. That’s the apple’s real "character". I learned this as a boy watching my mom make applesauce. With a wooden pestle, she would mash the soft, boiled pieces of apple through a metal colander into a bowl, until all that remained in the colander were drab, flattened skins. But oh, the sauce tasted so good! God uses life’s pressures to bring out the sweetness of Christlike character in us. Tribulation (which means "pressure" in the Greek) also helps us realize the awful potential of our sin nature and see it for what it is-ugly and tasteless. Under pressure, all kinds of sins begin to surface-greed, selfishness, lust, pride. Pressure, whether from without or from an unrealistic perfectionism within, is a fact of our fallen world. God controls its intensity and duration so that we can recognize, confess, and renounce those fleshly "skins" that obscure Christ’s character in us. Tribulation is not something anyone seeks. But when it comes, the Holy Spirit will use it to create in us perseverance, character, and hope (Romans 5:3-4). -By Dennis De Haan

All God’s testings have a purpose–Someday you will see the light; All He asks is that you trust Him, Walk by faith and not by sight. -Zoller

"The gem of Christlike character is formed by pressure and refined by friction."

                                          Taken from Our Daily Bread; April 13, 2006.