Be Encouraged, Get Strong

Good Morning!! If you've ever suffered any great trial, then you'll have some understanding of these empathetic words: no trial feels good at the moment,...or seems to be a good thing, at the time. If you thought the Bible teaches that you are supposed to feel good, under God's chastening hand,...then you can now breathe a sigh of relief. God knows that your pain hurts. He does not,...and you should not, expect it to feel good when affliction comes. However, there is this great encouragement,...although it does not feel good right now, your trial will have a good result, when you have been trained by it. This is an interesting choice of words, because trained; is to teach, as to make fit, qualified, to make prepared as by exercise. And exercise in the Greek is the same root from which we get our English word gymnasium.

 

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.—Hebrews 12:11 (NIV)

 

If you go to any gym and observe it's participants, you will see the same principle on display there, of which the writer is here speaking,...people going through pain and discipline and difficulty in order to obtain a worthwhile goal. Gymnasts go through rigorous training in order to nail their floor exercises; bodybuilders endure repeated strain in order to chisel their muscles. Married, single, old and young women and men alike, put themselves through strenuous workouts in order to keep their hearts healthy, and their bodies fit. Similarly, we are to understand, suffering is sent to build us up, to keep us healthy. 

We become stronger because of the difficulty we have faced.

May our soul-exercise bring us great rewards in our relationship with God. Amen! 

"Faith helps us walk fearlessly,
run confidently,
and live victoriously."