A Faith-Filled Perspective – Seeing Adversity as a Burden or a Bridge – Purity 1818
Purity 1818 11/19/2025 Purity 1818 Audio Podcast
Purity 1818 on YouTube:
Good morning,
Today’s photo of an amazing view of Waterfall creek cutting its way through the peaks of Hallet Cove in Adelaide, South Australia comes to us from Dave Baun Photography who shared this scene on social media back on June 28, 2023.
Well, it’s Wednesday, and I share Dave’s coastline “humps” to visually represent our arrival at another mid-week summit, happy hump day, and as a reminder to keep our eyes open the beauty that is all around us, even when the circumstances we are facing make that difficult to do.
It’s been a week since I was fired from my job of 28 years, and, believe me, I know how difficult it can be to see the bright side when everything looks dark and foreboding. While every day was different at my job, I always assumed that it would be there and because of the benefits I had been given, I had no plans of retiring any time soon. Prior to last Wednesday, the future seemed pretty clear. I would work at my field tech job for another 10 to 15 years but that assumption was proven false as I now find myself trying to get full time employment and to discern whether this fork in the road was intended by God to move me into full time ministry or to just humble me so I would put my trust in Him more than a well paying job. I’m not sure where this road leads but I now who is in charge of it and I have been doing my best to give God lots of options of where to send me as I have been frantically applying for any jobs that I think would either meet my needs financially or could somehow be used to service the kingdom, or both.
Thankfully, the Lord has provided a seasonal delivery job at UPS that I start on Friday. I am still waiting for a text that will supposedly launch me into service, but I am trusting it will come and that this opportunity will bless me with some much-needed funds. When you get fired, they stop paying you and the scramble to meet your needs begins. So, when I say I am thankful for this new job, I really mean it because it will at least bring some money in and give me a sense of purpose as I try to figure out what the future will bring.
I am praying for certain full time ministry outcomes (Prison Fellowship) but will wait on the Lord to see what He has in mind. When we go through hardships like this, even when we are responsible for them, we are tested to see how we will respond and I am doing my best to respond with faith and hope. How we look at the hardships we face is very important. A positive outlook and standing in the truth of our relationship with God can make all the difference to our emotional and mental well-being. I am constantly reminding myself of how faithful God has been in the past and standing in the hope of how He will be faithful to deliver me in the future.
Speaking of trusting in the Lord in hard times, the In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotion from Friday, November 7th spoke about the importance of how we view adversity, and I am sharing it on the blog today to help us to see things God’s way. Dr. Charles Stanley writes:
“A Burden or a Bridge
Adversity can be a burden we carry or a bridge to a glorious future.
How would you describe adversity? As Christians, we have the opportunity to see it as a bridge leading to an eternal future.
Our perspective is the determining factor in how we view hardship. If we focus only on the negative, we’ll be drawn into despair. But if we look at problems from an eternal standpoint, our thinking will be transformed in three ways:
- We won’t lose heart, because we know we’re being renewed from within. As we respond in submission to whatever God allows in our life and trust in His good purposes, our character is shaped into Christlikeness and our hope is restored.
- The Lord will give us strength to endure. Paul said he was afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and constantly threatened with death, yet he called it all “light and momentary” compared to eternity (2 Cor. 4:8-11; 2 Cor. 4:17 NIV).
- Let’s not view adversity as a thief of all joy and a hindrance to a good life. Instead, we should look beyond the present to what the trial is producing for us—“an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (v. 17).
Viewing troubles through an eternal lens is an act of faith. It increases our trust in God, gives us greater passion, and strengthens us to victoriously cross the bridge of adversity.” – Charles Stanley
Amen. In this season of adversity, we have a choice to either lament and to mourn all that is wrong or to stand firm in the assurance that God is with us and will use our trying times to help us to grow more into the people that He created us to be.
So let the trials you are walking through be used by the Lord to help to change your character, give you the strength to persevere, and to remind you of all the good that you still experience as a child of God.
Commit yourself to seeing life through the truth of who you are in Christ and with the knowledge that God is still in control and will use everything for your good.
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For those who want more evidence for Christianity than my simple encouragements provide, I offer apologist, Frank Turek’s website, https://crossexamined.org/.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By John G. Kruis.
(While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s work. (The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling By John G. Kruis on Amazon )
This morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Persecution.
Psalm 119:69 (NASB) The arrogant have forged a lie against me; with all my heart I will observe Your precepts.
Today’s verse is the third of three passages of scripture that fall under the fourteenth point of our counseling reference guide resource section on Persecution.
14. Believers can keep God’s Word when they are persecuted. David did.
Today’s Bible verse exhorts us to use all of our hearts to stay true to God’s commands, even when we are wrongly accused or otherwise lied against.
Just as Christians are to have a God perspective, people in the world can also choose to view us through the lens of their own subjective standards of performance. Unlike the Christian who forgives continually, the world can choose to only give someone a certain number of chances before they give up on you or they can choose to not forgive at all, rejecting you for any failures to perform. Likewise, the world can choose to bend the truth to align with its own narrative to meet its ends. People can lie about us for selfish gain or just to make our lives difficult.
God knows this and today’s verse acknowledges the reality of persecution we may face, but it encourages us to not waver from obeying God’s commands. The Lord encourages us to stay true to His ways regardless of how we are being treated and He sent Jesus as the ultimate example of that.
So, stay strong in the Lord and give all of your heart to observe God’s precepts.
Unlike you and me, Jesus never sinned, only sought to do good, and was hated for it. Jesus was always obedient to the Father’s will, and his enduring persecution and wrongful execution shows us just how important it is to persevere and always choose God’s way over the ways of the world.
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As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.com where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from “Day by Day Along the Way” By Jay E. Adams.
As always, I share this information for educational purposes and encourage you all to purchase Adams’ books for your own private study and to support the late author’s work. This resource is available online for less than $20 at many sites.
Day 317
God, the Heart-Knower testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit …
Acts 15:8
Peter was right. God made no distinction between Jew and Gentile, by pouring out His Spirit equally upon both. It would, therefore, be going against God Himself to lay down requirements that He did not. How important that we recognize this principle. There are legalists in the church today who want people to conform to their extra-biblical norms in order to become members of their churches. If you belong to such a congregation, fight for the right of every believer to be a member of the church by faith, and not by keeping extra-biblical rules. God knows who are His—He, alone, is the one who knows hearts. And, notice, the issue boils down to what one believes in his heart, whether or not the Holy Spirit dwells within—all internal matters. The legalists were entirely wrapped up in externals: rights and ceremonies. This was the sort of emphasis that brought the destruction of Jerusalem. It could not be carried over from Judaism into the New Testament church.[1]
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[1] Jay E. Adams, Day by Day along the Way (Cordova, TN: Institute for Nouthetic Studies, 2020), 325.
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