Definition of adversity: a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.
In the middle of adversity, we begin to think that we are under attack from the enemy. We begin to believe that our Heavenly Father is against us, and that we must have fallen from HIS graces.
Well, part of this thinking may be true; our enemy is against us, but our Heavenly Father is for us. Ro. 8:31b NLT If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
So how many of us as followers of Jesus love adversity; it being a state of continued difficulty or misfortune? Not too many of us. But the real question is, does adversity advance the maturity of our spiritual status?
Jesus understood adversity, for he had not a place to lay His head. In the book “The Imitation of Christ” by THOMAS À KEMPIS it has this quote.
IT IS good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances’ men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.
When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth.
By: Pastor Steve Eicher
