The things that I ponder....

From Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss:

God loves His children. He knows that we cannot fully experience and enjoy His love unless we are obedient to Him. Obeying God is not meant to be a sterile, cold requirement; rather, it is a willing, glad-hearted response to One who loves us extravagantly and has our best interests at heart. God does not stand by at a distance, demanding our obedience. Rather, He blesses us by allowing us to be a part of accomplishing His purposes. He calls us to surrender, invites us to follow, empowers us to serve, and then blesses our obedience.

From Faith is Not a Feeling by Ney Bailey

Some of us may have prayed a prayer similar to this: "Lord, I pray You'd make me more like You. I pray that You would conform me to the image of Christ." Often, what we really want is for God to give us an anesthetic so we can be unconscious while He performs surgery on our hearts in order to conform us to Christ's perfect character. We don't want to wake up until the transformation is complete! We want the result but not the painful process.

From Acts 5

At this point the apostles had just been arrested and then released but not before they were flogged and ordered not to speak in the name of Jesus. Here is the response, in verse 41, that blew my mind:

"So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, REJOICING that they had been considered WORTHY to suffer shame for His name" (emphasis mine)

Then I love verse 42
"And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."

I ponder these things not because I have some great knowledge about them but because I struggle with them. Sometimes obedience is hard, sometimes I do want the results without the painful process, and sometimes I just can't fathom how the apostles rejoiced in their suffering. The Lord has so much to teach me. What is He teaching you?