About eight months ago I married a beautiful nurse named Annie. We spent an amazing honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, settled into our home in Winchester, Virginia, and have been living happily ever after since. However, I have been told that marriage has both its ups and downs, times of passion and romance along with times of patience and forgiveness. In the Bible, marriage is one of many models God gives us of our relationship with Him.
The famed Evangelist Billy Graham once said, “The Christian life is not a constant high.” We have ups and downs in our relationship with God. We will have seasons of great passion and times of trials.
Romans 14:17 says, “The Kingdom of God is…righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” But earlier in that same book Paul the Apostle speaks about the “present sufferings” of our time on earth, which is affirmed again in Hebrews 12:11, “No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, after it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness.”
These are but a few of the many examples Scripture gives us illustrating the different seasons (ups and downs) in the Christian life. Jesus knew this well. He had times of great temptation and rejection but also times of angelic comfort and approval from His Father in Heaven.
Many modern ministers have preached a message of “peace, power, and prosperity.” But they omit the other side of the coin. In our Christian lives, there will also be times of testing, trials, and tribulation.
In essence, the point of my article is to encourage you. The Christian life includes good and bad times. But, no matter what season you are in please remember that, “all things work together for good to those that love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
God has a plan even when we do not understand it. Stay strong in the faith!
-Josiah Alway