The Test Before the Rest

Have you ever wondered why no one consulted moms before they implemented Daylight Saving Time? Did no one consider that it might be easier on the kids (and therefore the moms) if they gradually changed the time over the span of a week or even a month? Well they didn't and, if you're anything like me, you're wondering if it's really okay to get in bed at 8 tonight because it's so dark outside that it feels more like 10 and the fatigue is setting in after just one day of dealing with the DST repercussions.

Even a trial such as this, like all trials great and small, is a part of our "testing" period as Christians. Scripture tells us that we are "pilgrims on the way," so to speak, wandering through our own wilderness during this earthly life, and yet led by the sure and sufficient Word and Spirit of God. According to God's wise design, these moments force us to walk in the footsteps of our Savior, who suffered before entering into glory, and therefore are a necessary part of our journey towards the ultimate rest God has promised to all who are in Christ. God uses these trials to refine us, conforming us more and more into the image of His Son. This should encourage us - our sufferings are not in vain! Rejoice in the hope, dear moms, that a day of rest will come and that, in the meantime, the tests of this life are nothing compared to the riches that are to be ours in our eternal home with Christ Jesus!

Paul prays for the Ephesians, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." 1:17-18

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4