Listen, my dear
brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be
rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? James 2:5
The
goal and reward of temporal poverty is eternal enrichment. God never intended
that tribulation and poverty should have no fruit. His purpose is that all
pressure should lead to enlargement and that all poverty should lead to wealth.
His destiny for his people is not continuous
poverty. Straightness and poverty are not an end; they are the means
to an end.
There is much that we do not understand in John's revelation of the New Jerusalem, but we do see there a city of infinite wealth. There is, however, not a nugget of gold in that city which has not been tried in a furnace of affliction, not a precious stone which has not passed through the fires, and not a pearl that has not been born of suffering. To be "rich in faith" is surely justified, therefore.
There is much that we do not understand in John's revelation of the New Jerusalem, but we do see there a city of infinite wealth. There is, however, not a nugget of gold in that city which has not been tried in a furnace of affliction, not a precious stone which has not passed through the fires, and not a pearl that has not been born of suffering. To be "rich in faith" is surely justified, therefore.
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