Do you find yourself complaining when facing adversity? Do you feel discouraged when faced with defeat? Do you understand why you have been put through this test? This is an interesting read from my daily bread. I hope you will enjoy this as much as it spoke to me.
2 Corinthians 2: 14 says, Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.
God gets his greatest victories out of apparent defeats. Very often, the enemy seems to triumph for a little, and God lets it be so, but, He comes in and upsets all the work of the enemy, and overthrows the apparent victory. Psalm 146:9 says: he turns the way of the wicked upside down. We cannot experience this triumph from God if he had not allowed the enemy to seem to triumph in the first place.
Let me tell you the story of three Hebrew boys who were cast into the fiery furnace. The whole story can be read in Daniel chapter 3. When the boys were thrown in at first, it looked like an apparent victory for the enemy. It looked as if the servants of the living God were going to have a terrible defeat.
We have all been in places where it seemed as though we were defeated, and the enemy rejoiced. We can imagine what a complete defeat this looked to be. They fell into the flames, and their enemies watched them, to see them burn up in that awful fire, but were greatly astonished to see them walking around in the fire, enjoying themselves. Nebuchadnezzar told them to ‘come forth out of the midst of the fire’ Not even a hair was singed, nor was the smell of fire on their garments, “because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort”. The apparent defeat resulted in a marvellous victory.
Suppose that these three men had lost their faith and courage, and had complained, saying, “Why did not God keep us out of the furnace!” They would have been burned, and God would not have been glorified. If there is a great trail in your life today, do not own it as a defeat, but continue, by faith to claim the victory through him who can make you more than a conqueror, and a glorious victory will soon be apparent. Let us learn that in all the hard places God brings us into, He is making opportunities for us to exercise such faith in Him as will bring about blessed results and greatly glorify His name.
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