Entrusting Our Souls to God
If the righteous are rewarded here on earth, what will happen to wicked sinners? (Proverbs 11:31)
For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News? And also, “If the righteous are barely saved, what will happen to godless sinners?” (1 Peter 4:17–18)
If you think your testing is tough, imagine how tough it is for the person going through trials without the Lord. I’ll be candid with you: I am absolutely at a loss to know how the lost person makes it when the bottom drops out of his or her life. This person has no Savior. No foundation. No borders. No absolutes. No reason to go on. Nothing to hold on to . . . no one to turn to. . . no way to calm his or her fears . . . no purpose for living . . . no peace in dying. Can you imagine that kind of hopelessness? If you can’t, just look at what’s happening in the world around you.
Imagine being without the Lord and hearing the worst kind of news from your physician or from the policeman who knocks on your door late at night. Though we, too, are rocked back on our heels by such things, as Christians we immediately turn to our sovereign absolute, our firm foundation, and we lean hard on Him. And if these earthly trials are hard for the lost to bear, imagine their having to face eternal judgment!
There is no comparison between what we suffer now and what the unrighteous will suffer later.
If we who are justified by faith have “fiery ordeals” in our walk now, imagine the inferno the lost will face in the literal fiery future that awaits them. Turn to Revelation 20:10–15 and take a few minutes to read and then imagine the horror. Talk about fiery ordeals. Talk about a reason to give your life to Christ.
Thus far, Peter has told us how to react and what to remember when we are going through fiery trials. Now he encourages us by telling us on whom we are to rely—our “faithful Creator.”
Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:19 NASB)
Taken from Hope Again by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 1996 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing. www.harpercollinschristian.com
