For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
1 Peter 2:19-20
A lesson that seems to stay on repeat in my life:
Then by faith, actually believing what He says,
though everything around me, both seen and unseen, taunts me to self-preservation.
To then drive the stake of belief completely in by obeying what His truth says.
-->How do we prevail in those moments of pain and confusion against our fallenness that lies to us about an entitlement of comfort and indulgence... and then count it a gracious thing?
It's a miracle of His grace that is spelled out in four quick, pivotal words...
...when, mindful of God...
To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:6
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:3
This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
Psalm 119:50
A mind intentionally filled with God's life-creating, faith-sustaining, incomparably-satisfying Word,
and His saving grace to believe it.
That's how we prevail. That's how we endure sorrows while suffering unjustly. That's how we count it ALL joy.
