- Jun 29, 2019
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James 1:2-4 says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” 1 Peter 5:10 says “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” Does not our love of God through Lord Jesus, so that we will be richly rewarded in His Grace, amount to a bootcamp and gym of sorts?
One analogy is to bootcamp in the military. The military prepares its servicemen and women to be strong both morally and physically, that the enemy will be defeated. But on the way to reaching that state there is a lot of endurance of things that are uncomfortable and deny the pleasures that civilians have. And for the soldiers who are morally committed, they will be rewarded in their accomplishments to protect our country, and they are further rewarded as they have received God’s praise when laying down their lives.
In that regard, our tolerance of the pains we encounter periodically in our Love of God, is our bootcamp to a higher reward. What we go through is what others would regard as suffering. But if you want to call it suffering, it is the same type of suffering as soldiers who go through bootcamp, strengthening their bodies and mind. It isn’t that much different than when a person goes to the gym. For awhile there is discomfort, but it’s to a greater purpose.
In a sense, the Word of God is like a training manual to a gym with all the available apparatus. Unlike a gym, though, we don’t walk away when the workout is over, since with God through Jesus the workout is always with us, with God monitoring our progress.
And as some will go to the gym, to bootcamp while others avoid it, so we go through what we go through in order to obtain God’s Grace. We have decided that the pain and discomfort we endure in our love of God, is worth our rewards in Him. And we may laugh along with eachother as some of us may squint, and we may playfully mock eachother who may waver momentarily, in order to egg eachother on, as in, ‘Too much for you? Come on.’ And like the soldiers in bootcamp, we have entered a commitment that we see to the end, and in the meantime, we ask others who may ridicule us and try to impose their brand of suffering on us, ‘Suffering? What suffering?’
One analogy is to bootcamp in the military. The military prepares its servicemen and women to be strong both morally and physically, that the enemy will be defeated. But on the way to reaching that state there is a lot of endurance of things that are uncomfortable and deny the pleasures that civilians have. And for the soldiers who are morally committed, they will be rewarded in their accomplishments to protect our country, and they are further rewarded as they have received God’s praise when laying down their lives.
In that regard, our tolerance of the pains we encounter periodically in our Love of God, is our bootcamp to a higher reward. What we go through is what others would regard as suffering. But if you want to call it suffering, it is the same type of suffering as soldiers who go through bootcamp, strengthening their bodies and mind. It isn’t that much different than when a person goes to the gym. For awhile there is discomfort, but it’s to a greater purpose.
In a sense, the Word of God is like a training manual to a gym with all the available apparatus. Unlike a gym, though, we don’t walk away when the workout is over, since with God through Jesus the workout is always with us, with God monitoring our progress.
And as some will go to the gym, to bootcamp while others avoid it, so we go through what we go through in order to obtain God’s Grace. We have decided that the pain and discomfort we endure in our love of God, is worth our rewards in Him. And we may laugh along with eachother as some of us may squint, and we may playfully mock eachother who may waver momentarily, in order to egg eachother on, as in, ‘Too much for you? Come on.’ And like the soldiers in bootcamp, we have entered a commitment that we see to the end, and in the meantime, we ask others who may ridicule us and try to impose their brand of suffering on us, ‘Suffering? What suffering?’
