Trusting Christ alone

or Finding joy in our trials

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13 but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

"Everywhere in the Bible we are told just how foolish it is for man to trust anyone or anything except Christ. But, we are also told of the readiness and the willingness of men to do just that. This is the heart of rebellion . . . the foundation of our sinfulness: that our trust, our hope, is most often put in what we can do, it is most often put in what we can see, and that no matter how loud we profess that we have surrendered to the Lord, when it comes to life, to the truth of life each and every day, we trust ourselves; and we struggle to rest with peace that the Lord is on our side. The greatest & most essential lesson that [we] can learn (and one we have to learn over and over again every day) is that wherever we live, whatever our circumstances, life comes, truth comes, hope comes, and endless and happy future comes, from believing Jesus, and giving ourselves, not partially, not in word, not reluctantly, but fully to a practical trust of Him. One of the primary reasons why this world is, and must be so filled with suffering and sorrow is that the eternal welfare of people depends upon their coming to rely upon the Lord and they never will unless they are driven to it. . . . In the same way, the Christian life, your life, grows and deepens and becomes in all ways more beautiful and fruitful only as you come more and more to rely upon the Lord and less and less to rely upon yourself. And . . . such is [our] aversion to this, such is [our] lust to look to [ourselves] and to other things, other things that [we] can see, that if it were not for our sufferings and our trials and our sorrows we would never, ever grow up."

excerpt from a sermon by Rev. Kevin D. Skogen