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5/17 Reading Portions: Numbers 26; Psalm 69; Isaiah 16; 1 Peter 4
1 Peter 4:19
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.
ENTRUST
There is amazing freedom to live as one saved by God’s grace. We know the truth of God’s sovereignty in all things. His will to save us doesn’t merely mean we escape the punishments rightly due to us for sins we’ve committed against Him; it also means He has determined to cause our lives to shine as diamonds against the black backdrop of this world’s fallen and corrupt condition. The situations and circumstances we encounter each and every day were designed by a sovereign Savior and faithful Creator to make you and me more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 8:28-29). Therefore, we may entrust our souls to Him as we do good to please Him. This is an insane witness to the world. We are saved from destruction, yet when we suffer calamity and endure hardship, we entrust our lives more and more to an unseen Benefactor with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). We entrust our everything to Him,
…in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:11
In my case, before I was saved, the hardships suffered by believers were as invisible to me as the God in whom they professed and the Christ whom they adored. When their Christ revealed Himself to me, and their Savior became my Christ, my understanding was opened to their hardships… and mine, but my blinded eyes were also opened and I saw the eternal fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives (Gal 5:22-23). My heart also swelled with more love for, joy in, and peace with Christ Jesus; and to entrust my soul to His faithful doings, aided my own doings for His exaltation unto the Father’s glory. Hallelujah! What a Savior. Entrust your soul to the only One who can make you truly whole.
Entrust your soul to Christ Jesus,
He set our lives to be
More like Him, as all this pleases
God, who decrees faithfully.