ADVERSITY DEFINED BY O WORDS

ADVERSITY DEFINED BY O WORDS

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Isaiah 55:6-9 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Matthew [GW] 4:17 From then on, Jesus began to tell people, "Turn to God and change the way you think and act, because the kingdom of heaven is near!"

  Our faith should never stand in the wisdom of man, but the power of God. (1Cor.2:5)

  Romans 12:1-3 instructs us to think and act according to God’s Way. Doing so is authentic worship. In Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth he addresses this issue of thinking apart from the “mind of Christ”.

  In mature understanding and applying God’s Word, adversity will not commonly be seen as calamity, catastrophe, tragedy . . . disastrous. Such rigid framing of events, conditions, and circumstances is apart from the mind of Christ.

  Jesus told His followers they would suffer adversity, explaining “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.“ Lord Jesus Christ tells His followers that adversity is opportunity to overcome. He manifested this. This truth goes against ungodly natural instincts reinforced by a lifetime of familial education. Authentic worship pleasing God is not natural! (1Cor.2:12-16)

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