Mon., 3/2/15 Devotion (2 Cor. 1:24b)

Today's encouragement comes from 2 Corinthians 1:24b, where we read these few words:

" . . . For by faith you stand."

No matter what happens to us, no matter what troubles and/or struggles we have to face—so long as we have and exercise sincere faith in Christ we "stand." This is an encouragement of great magnitude, because otherwise we must seek to "stand" on some other basis—and this usually comes down to our works, or what we do (and these are always insufficient).

Justification is apprehended by faith; but so is sanctification. Sometimes the pruning process is difficult and tedious—but, so long as we have genuine (though yet imperfect) faith in Jesus, we "stand" before Almighty God.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Thus, affliction is nothing to them who have no guilt, but those who have the guilt of sin upon them, when they come to suf-fer, their guilt is a thousand times more than their affliction.” —Jeremiah Bur-roughs, in, "The Evil of Evils"]