My dictionary defines a kingdom in several ways. One definition says it is a country, state, or territory ruled by a king or queen, or a realm associated with a particular person or thing, or the spiritual reign or authority of God. When the New Testament mentions the kingdom of God, I think of the place where God rules.
This definition is helpful when interpreting my reading for today. It comes from Acts 14:21-22, and says, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’”
If these were disciples, were they not already in the kingdom of God? In one sense, yes. They had given their lives to Jesus Christ and God brought them out of the kingdom of darkness, and into the kingdom of His Son. Yet in another sense, because of their present situation they were struggling to be in the kingdom as that place where God rules.
I can relate to this struggle. God is showing me how much my routine means to me, and that I’m hanging on too tightly. When life tosses too many curves to my schedule, I feel as if I don’t function very well. Part of this is an attention deficit problem, but lately I’m realizing it is also a control problem.
For a long time, I’ve been depending on being in charge of what I do and where I go. Now I realize that this control can put me outside of the place where God rules. I’m also realizing that I can’t seem to give up this control. It seems that this should be easy, but conquering the rule of self is never easy. God knows that if I am to get back into this place where He rules, I need tribulation.
So the curves keep coming. They are not huge things, just stuff that requires my submission. I may have some say in what is happening, but realize that if I exercise my ‘rights’ I will be acting like a spoiled and cantankerous child. This is not how a child of the kingdom behaves.
Today’s devotional reading speaks sharply to my complaining. It says, “I am sure there is an inward witness in your soul that you never entered into any one mystery of the kingdom of God . . . except through tribulation. Was it not through tribulation you understood the word, and felt it applied to your conscience by the power of God? And was it not by and through tribulation . . . that you were made to value more and more the manifestation of God to your soul and feel that nothing could satisfy you . . . ?”
Of course he is right. But no one likes tribulation, even the smallest varieties. Yet I know the value of these struggles, as Isaiah 48:10 says, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”
Job adds, “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
I feel like such a wimp because the furnace is not even very hot, but I’m hoping that after all these tests my life is much shinier than it is right now.
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