If we trust in God, he will provide for us, both in the physical world, as well as in the spiritual realm.
While there are many themes in the Bible, there is one that starts in Genesis and runs through every section of the Word.
Gods wants to draw his creation to him.
If we want to know God, all we have to do is look in his Word. Through the stories of the saints, he has revealed his character to us. He recognizes our humanity, and he knows our shortcomings and failures.
We are made like him, and he understands us.
In the previous article, we learned about God’s goodness in providing humans a healing process to help with earthly grief. He has also provided a similar process for becoming a child of God.
Today we will look at the first of the five stages we go through on our way to him.
Stage One – Testing:
In Chapter 17, Verse 9, Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”
All we have to do is look around us to see how true this is. At times it seems the world is collapsing around us. From an elementary school shooting in New Jersey, to the latest reports of sexual immorality at the highest levels of government, the wicked desires of our hearts seem to permeate our society.
It has always been so. In Genesis 19:5, Lot saw this. The two angels had come to warn him of impending doom, and the men of Sodom called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”
Galatians 5:19-21 tells us ways in which humanity will test the love of God. “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” Then Paul goes on to tell us, “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Yet, our world does not listen. Rather than turn to God, we fight against his salvation, giving in to the wicked desires of our hearts.
Why does the world expend so much effort testing the love of God? Read in 1 Corinthians 6:19. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.”
We think we belong to ourselves, and the truth is far from that, for in Colossians 1:16, we read that by him all things are created, and they are created through him, and for him.
When we were created, we were made like God. He knows what it is like to be human, and he understands when we test his loving nature. However, he continues to draw us to him.
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