Daily Sacrifice, August 20 (8:18)
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” — Romans 8:18.
CHRISTIANS are not exempt from suffering. When one trusts in Christ, it does not mean that he is at once freed from all the consequences of sin. So far as divine judgment is concerned, he is forever delivered from that (John 3:18, R. V.). But he is still in the body from which the Adamic curse has not yet been lifted. Consequently he suffers with the groaning creation, of which that body is still a part. Then, in addition to this, he now finds that the world to which he once belonged, has become a scene of hostility because of the place he has taken in association with a rejected Christ. All this involves suffering, but with every trial and affliction there will come needed grace to endure, as seeing Him who is invisible (Heb. 11:27).
—Frances Ridley Havergal.