Hebrews 12:1 – Verse of the Day 5/1/14

How do you respond when hard things happen to you? The Bible teaches a lot of countercultural things, and Hebrews 12 is probably one of the most radical. It teaches us that the hard things that happen to us are actually for our spiritual good.

This does not mean that the bad things that happen in our lives are actually good – they aren’t.  On the other hand, it does mean that God frequently uses evil for good. Sometimes we see how he is doing that at the time, sometimes we see it after the fact, and sometimes we don’t see it in this life at all – but we know that God is good and so is his plan for us.

Like an athlete training for a big competition, this verse teaches us that the trials and consequences of sin that we experience are training us, building our endurance, and forcing us to rely on God. They also teach us to think with an eternal perspective that gives us strength in the present. Spend some time in prayer asking God to help you develop this eternal perspective and a desire to see hardship as an opportunity to grow in your faith.