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JULY: The Kingdom of God

July 30

THE REALM OF EXPERIENCE, PART 2

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

In the same way, great crises in life show us our weakness, helplessness, and lack of power. Paul illustrates that in Romans 8. "We know not what we should pray for as we ought." In a time of peace and of ease we think that we can pray, that we know how to pray. We are assured and confident, and we feel that we are living the religious life as it should be lived. But when trials come, they reveal to us how weak and helpless we are.

That, in turn, drives us to God, and makes us realize more than ever before our utter dependence upon Him. This is the experience of all Christians. In our folly we imagine that we can live in our own strength and by our own power, and our prayers are often formal. But troubles make us fly to God and cause us to wait upon Him. God says of Israel through Hosea, "In their affliction they will seek me early" (Hosea 5:15). How true that is of all of us. To seek God is always good, and afflictions drive us to do so.

But all this is mainly from our side. Looking at it from the other side, we can say that there is no school in which Christians have learned so much of the loving, tender care of God for His own as the school of affliction. While all is well with us, in our self-satisfaction and self-contentment we shut God out of our lives; we do not allow Him to reveal to us His solicitude for us even in the details of our lives. It is only when we are troubled that we "know not what we should pray for as we ought" and that we begin to realize that "the Spirit...maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

A Thought to Ponder
There is no school in which Christians have learned so much of the loving, tender care of God for His own as the school of affliction.

From Why Does God Allow War? pp. 124-125.



Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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