I am grateful to God on this Thanksgiving Day.
However, as it is written:
No eye has seen,
No ear has heard,
No mind has conceived,
What God has prepared for those who love Him.
(1 Corinthians 2:9)
I may not see—and often I don’t. I may not hear. My imagination is stretched beyond its limits. Yet God has made preparations for all who love Him, even me. More bountiful than the most elaborate dinner. He has determined it. He cannot be unfaithful. It is set in stone.
I know that You can do all things;
No purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
(Job 42:2)
This declaration of Job’s came toward the end of his long trial. God had transformed him from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. Nevertheless, his outward circumstances were no different. This is a statement of faith. And we know that faith is a gift from God. The faith of Job was in God’s ability to accomplish His own purpose. Even today we believe that there is a Divine purpose, and it will come to pass.
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into His glory?
(Luke 24:26)
When I look back, I can see that every adversity God allowed in my life, from the unpleasant to the breathtakingly painful, was necessary. If suffering was necessary in Jesus’s life, it is even more of a necessity in our lives. Suffering tests the quality of our love, to prove that it has a foundation of faith. It reveals whether we trust God, or we will forsake Him when the going gets tough. He aims to develop in us a love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” The same kind of love that He found in Jesus. Suffering is God’s principal way of preparing us for all that is to come.
For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
(Habakkuk 2:14)
I thank God for the revelation of a future in which His love and presence permeate the visible creation. He has prepared this glory to share with all who love Him.
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