We must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of everyone of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12, NRSV)
It is not easy to stay steady and strong in the face of trials and tribulations. It is so much easier to give up and move on to something else.
Why is that?
We want to impress those around us we bend to the whims of society. We do not hold out for what we know is the right thing, the right way. We give up because of the pressures of those around us. We are told it is not worth maintaining the course we are on and that it would be so much easier to move over here and do this.
But God is calling us to a steadfast hope in the promises He has given us. He is asking us to follow Him and not look at the rest of the world, but to focus our sights on Him and where He is leading us.
He will walk with us through the trials and tribulations, He will always guide us and He will take care of the scoffers and nay sayers.
We must maintain our steadfast hope in our Lord who will not forget His promises to you!
aSacredRebel 