Wednesday, August 3 (July 21), 2022

1Cor. 10:12-22; Mt. 16:20-24

When the Apostles confessed the Savior to be the Son of God, He told them that “He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things… and be killed” [Mt. 16:21].  His earthly sojourn was near the end, and just one thing remained: to accomplish His mission by the death on the cross.

And every Christian encounters such a moment in the course of his moral perfection. As long as he is struggling with his passions, the enemy of mankind is still hoping to seduce him somehow; but when the passions wind down and the enemy has no more means to re-ignite them, he would resort to external temptations, like slander of various kinds, and most painful to that.  The enemy’s goal is to plant a thought in the Christian’s mind: “So, that’s the net result of my struggle! I’ve got nothing but grief…”

But while the enemy is mounting such an attack from outside, the Lord sends down a spirit of patience to His faithful servant, and even before any real trouble happens, the Christian’s heart gets encouraged to endure any kind of affliction and pain, and the enemy’s attack comes to nothing.  Just as the Lord said of Himself. “…must suffer many things”,  so the Christians also expect the afflictions, and when they indeed come to pass, meet them with joy and drink them like a thirsty man would drink refreshing water.