For a few days recently, I exchanged email with some friends with the subject Re: Your Trial Ends Tomorrow. The thread started with a message from an online service about to expire.
Sometimes email subjects like this persist when the thread becomes quite different. Today I looked at one of these emails and thought - I wish my trials would end tomorrow!
Isn't that a wonderful thought! The only problem is that tomorrow, -Your Trial Ends Tomorrow- will still be in the future. Tomorrow will always be in the future as long as today is still called today. That reminds me of this verse:
But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Hebrews 3:13
Sin always wants to deceive us, to tell us "you can do it tomorrow" or "you can quit tomorrow." In the Bible, Today is the time to act. Tomorrow is some time in the future and in my case it's usually too late!
As far as Trials go - will they ever end? Jesus says "In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." John 16:33
James says "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." (James 1:2-3)
Thankfully trials come and go and we get stronger through them. Our final trial will end when the last enemy is defeated, which is death. The Bible says we should not fear death because that is the end of the conflict, the day when we shed this old shell and put on immortality.
Victory in God's kingdom is not what we expect. Jesus re-defined victory in a surprise attack on the gates of hell, by offering His blood to purchase our souls from the law of sin and death. What our Adversary saw as defeat was actually the ultimate victory for the kingdom of heaven. Now Jesus is seated at the right hand of God and says to all men: You are welcome here - leave your baggage at the gate!
I can see this clearly now - we can experience victory where the world sees defeat. Though we can rest assured that our trials will end tomorrow, every pain and shame of this mortal body reminds me that victory is certain and we can rejoice in it -the hope of glory- today!
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Cor 15:57
