Here is the problem as far as the natural man is concerned. We possess the Glory of Christ but we are in an "earthen vessel." Because we are in an earthen vessel we are subject to weakness and frustration.

We much prefer to be in control of what is going on in our lives. But God cannot work His powerful works of redemption while we are in control. Therefore we continually are being brought into a state of helplessness. The process of rendering us helpless is not always enjoyable, but neither is it intensely painful if we seek to work with the Spirit instead of against Him.

God deliberately has placed us in bodies of clay—animal bodies that keep us humble and weak so God's power may predominate. Even with this humbling our Christian journey is filled with trouble so that the wisdom and power working in us may be of God and not of us. Salvation is of the Lord and He will not give His glory to another.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; (II Corinthians 4:8,9)

Troubled! Perplexed! Persecuted! Cast down!

The true saint finds that his faith and trust are being challenged every day of his sojourn on the earth. Sometimes he despairs even of life. But if he does not turn away from the Lord, the Lord always provides a solution for every distress. The older saints know this well.

It may be true that the difference between victory and defeat in the Christian life depends upon the manner in which we respond to tribulation and suffering. If we perceive tribulation and suffering as being from the devil, an unnecessary evil we must not be allowed to experience, we may miss God's will for our life.

God often places the believer in a "prison" of circumstances. The saint may be restricted for long periods of time—perhaps decades. It is in such prisons that our transformation into Christ's image takes place.

If we fret and complain, hoping to find some way to escape the unpleasantness, we finally will be tempted to break God's laws; for in order to escape God's prisons we must break God's laws.

It has become fashionable today to teach the Lord's people that it is not God's will for them to suffer, that being children of God they should be enjoying the best the world has to offer. What is the motive for such unscriptural teaching? It is difficult to conceive of a doctrine more opposed to the concept of transformation.

There is another way to view our distress, and that is that our pain is the means the Lord is using to reveal His glory within us.

We are not teaching by this that we should welcome every affliction and not pray diligently to the Lord for deliverance, not exercise faith, not believe for release. We should and must keep on pressing toward total victory in Jesus. The righteous individual suffers many afflictions but the Lord shall deliver him out of them all and bring him into abundant joy.

To be continued.