We must develop patience, perseverance, and endurance for the times ahead, safe-guarding the precious calling God has given us and enduring to the end

While the carnal mindset is hostile to everything in God's word, we have been provided a gift to enable us to overcome: the faith from being born of God.

Without daily contact with God in prayer and Bible study, and without continual contact with the brethren, we may lose the determination to persevere.

There is a critical difference between self-examination and self-preoccupation. We must accurately assess our spiritual state without becoming self-absorbed.

Christ prepared the members of Smyrna for martyrdom, promising them eternal glory for enduring a relatively short time, looking at things from a hopeful perspective.

We are bombarded by technology, competing for our attention, causing us to drift from our spiritual quest. God expects us to continue to mature spiritually.

WHY are we not more successful in living up to God's standard? WHY do we slip and fall at times? Here is how YOU can overcome where you are hardest tempted!

It offends our sense of justice to see the wicked prospering while the righteous suffer. We may need to adjust our expectations for leading an easy life.

Satan accused God of hedging Job about on every side, saying that if God would let down the hedge, they could see what Job was really made of.

Life is difficult to navigate. Adversity is a common part of life, yet now, having been called by God, we must work hard to overcome and conquer these challenges.

Trials define who we are by placing choices before us, forcing us to have faith in God. Character is built by making right, though difficult, choices.

The conversion process resembles a battle, requiring that we must put on armor, expecting continuous skirmishes to enter God's Kingdom victoriously.

Trials are a means to produce spiritual growth, unless we resort to super-righteousness, straining to please God by exalting our works.

David reminds us in Psalm 37 that we should not be concerned about the wicked, whose destiny is to perish, and that the righteous are infinitely better off.

The constant tests to which God submits His people enable them to build character by responding in faith. God perfected Abraham's faith through difficult trials.

Affliction seems to be an integral part of Christianity. However, when it is viewed in the context of eternity, it is relatively light.

The Potter and Clay analogy provides instructions for understanding character-building tests and trials in the life-long sanctification process.

Patience in the face of trying events is a clear indication that we are developing genuine godliness. We can learn to turn trials into positive growth opportunities.

A spiritual Israelite undergoes a metamorphosis in which his own self-centered will is broken so that God's creative work can be completed within him.

God uses trials to test our hearts, but He never places a trial before us to tempt us. God uses trials we bring on ourselves to draw us closer to Him.

We must embrace failure as a tool for spiritual growth. Trials are essential in shaping character, building faith, and reinforcing dependence on God.

At times we exhibit some faithlessness, perhaps because we have viewed faith just in terms of what we do rather than what God does through His gifting to us.

The biblical city of Smyrna may be one that many know the least about. The city's name reveals the themes that the Head of the church wants us to understand.

The most formidable foe in our spiritual battle is the flesh. We must mortify, slay, and crucify the flesh, enduring suffering as Jesus Christ exemplified.

Though we have been given gifts to edify the Body of Christ, these gifts are of ancillary purposes only as they move everyone forward on the spiritual journey.

Even though the way God exercises His sovereignty is inscrutable to us , calling the foolish to confound the wise, all He does fits perfectly into His plan.

Calamities, trials, anxiety, evil, and calamities, as well as blessings, happen to Christians in order to become fashioned and molded into God's image.

Psalm 23 depicts the gratitude we should display from a sheep's point of view, as the animal boasts of blessings and marvels about the care of his Shepherd.

The quality of leadership affects the morality and well-being of a nation, and the quality of family leadership trickles up to civic and governmental leadership.

Christians have been subject to psychological abuse as well as torture. Peter says that persecution is inevitable and is often triggered by good works

The only tangible measures of faith is faithfulness, trust, and loyalty to God. We don't need to ask God for more faith, but rather work on being faithful.

Faithfulness is a hallmark of a true Christian, yet unfaithfulness is prevalent at the end of the age. Here is what the Bible teaches about faithfulness.

We live daily in uncharted territory, but the sobering account in Numbers provides a roadmap, establishing God's pattern of judging our pilgrimage conduct.

To establish sound doctrine, we must build on the foundation Christ's teaching, taking the straight and narrow course rather than the wisdom of this world.