No Pain. No Gain!

You’ve heard the well-known saying, “No pain. No gain!”  We use it all the time when we’re talking about exercising, being willing to endure the difficulty of running and lifting weights so that you can experience the benefit of a body that’s healthy and in great shape.

But have you ever thought about the hard work of reading your bible?  Pouring over the pages to find wonderful truths and mining the word of God to unearth its glorious treasures.  Do you know, in John chapter 6, Jesus declared some very difficult things about the sovereignty of God and what it looks like to be fully satisfied in Christ?  And in response, most of the people grumbled, saying, “This is too hard, who can listen?”  And yet, His disciples heard the same exact truths and declared, “Where else would we go?  Only you (Jesus) have the words of eternal life.”  Do you see? The disciples counted the cost, and they determined that the difficult things were worth the benefit of gaining Christ.  So how did they respond?  They believed.  But here’s the question.  Are you willing to do the hard work of wrestling with the Word of God so that you might find its glorious treasure?  Where else would you go?  Only Jesus has the words of life.

Something to think about from the Proclamation point of view.