A Sweet Visitation

Yesterday, I was touched by Ephesians 5:20 since we are to give thanks to our Father for "at all times for all- things", even "bad times" and "good things". As the footnote (1) reveals: "Even in bad times we should give thanks to God...". This is especially poignant in the "present distress" but then a brother also shared with me today Romans 5:3, in which Paul even boasted of "tribulations". Why? Because "...tribulation produces endurance". Such tribulations are part of the "all things" (Romans 8:28) "that God causes "to work together for good that we might be sanctified, transformed, and conformed to the image of His Son..." (RcV, Footnote 1). Thus we can receive such tribulations as a "sweet visitation and incarnation of grace and thereby boast in them". Praise the Lord! (2 Cor.4:16-18 also adds further weight to this with reference to the consuming and wearing out of the "outer man" (the material body and the animating soul) while the inner man, our regenerated spirit, is renewed. Therefore, we do not lose heart! Hallelujah!