The righteous are saved with difficulty. So great is the wrath of God directed toward the sin and rebellion found in the earth that God chastens His own children severely in order that they may be partakers of His holiness.

Our task is to maintain our patience and faith while we are suffering persecution and tribulation. If we are patient and faithful in our suffering, giving glory and praise to the Father without ceasing, then we are acceptable to God and received of God. He judges us worthy of His Kingdom. We will have rest when Christ appears.

The Kingdom of God is associated with patience (Revelation 1:9). We are to allow patience to have its perfect work in us. The believer who is impatient must cry out to God for deliverance from the sin of impatience.

There is coming an hour of temptation on the earth. Lawlessness, lust, and violence will abound. If we are willing to guard the Word of Christ's patience now, Christ will guard us throughout the period of temptation (Revelation 3:10). But if we do not carry our cross patiently in the present hour, Christ will not guard us during the time of temptation. We—Christian or not—will be drawn into the deceptions of Antichrist. We will have our part in fiery burnings under the watchful eyes of the holy angels and the Lamb (Revelation 14:10,11).

If we are patient to the point of the death of our fleshly nature we will find rest in the time of trouble. We will rest from our labors, and our works will follow us as light and heat follow the rising of the sun (Revelation 14:13). This is the patience of the saints, of those who keep the commandments of God.

Much patience and cheerful confidence in the Lord throughout every kind of suffering and perplexity are necessary if we would attain the first resurrection.

The intercession of others on our behalf. A factor that must not be overlooked, in the attainment of eternal life, is intercessory prayer. The intercession of Christ in the Presence of the Father is one of the major provisions God has made to insure our success as we pursue the narrow, pressured, rigorous way that leads to life.

Perhaps Lot is one of the clearest examples of the power of intercession. Lot was delivered from destruction because of the intercession of faithful Abraham on his behalf.

The writer does not consider Lot an example of attainment to the first resurrection. The first resurrection is for those who have a full inheritance in the Lord, like Noah and Abraham. Lot barely escaped destruction, losing his wife and his possessions.

Nevertheless God counted Lot worthy of deliverance from destruction. This is because another person stood in the gap for him.

Each of us should be encouraged by the deliverance of Lot. We have loved ones who have a difficult time deciding to serve God and continue to wander in the fields of sin. It is a comfort to us to know that God hears our prayers of intercession and counts the objects of our prayers as being worthy of life because of our prayers for them.

Many of us are where we are in the Kingdom because of the prayers of others for us.

To be continued.