THE ROAD TO GLORY

 Sylvia Pearce

“…The sufferings of this present world and not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

 

Since everything works together for our good (Rom. 8:28), then even our besetting trials are used by God for your very glory. Paul says that our light affliction which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While outer man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. How can our besetting temptations be the prelude to glory? First, they teach us total resignation and total dependence on Christ, “who is our life” alone. These first steps humble us and prove to us how helpless we really are apart from our union with Christ. Then, they teach us that the devil is always tempting us by drawing us into constant, condemning, self-analyses which finally teach us and prove to us the fruitlessness of self-improvement…i.e. the carnal mind. These struggles give us the knowledge of our own powerlessness to deliver ourselves from evil which is false dependence (Romans 7:23), as well as the powerlessness of keeping ourselves from sin which is unbelief (Jude 1:24).