Greetings and blessings to the @Steemchurch community!
I focus my message on the reflection of the apostle Paul with the specific situations he experienced throughout his ministry.
"I want you to know, brothers, that the things that have happened to me have resulted rather in the progress of the gospel" (Philippians 1:12).
Paul tells Christians in Philippi not to worry about all the things he had suffered.
Interestingly, Paul wrote this epistle while he was bound in a Roman prison. At that time he was an experienced warrior of the gospel, having endured all imaginable difficulties. If you study Paul's life, you'll know the kind of things he faced: shipwrecks; hits; teasing; Hunger and thirst; character defamation. And, unfortunately, Paul's worst afflictions came from those who called themselves born-again believers.
Some of Paul's opponents were envious ecclesiastical leaders who turned their entire congregation against him. They made fun of his lifestyle, made fun of his preaching, misrepresented his message and questioned his authority. Wherever Paul went, he seemed to be in trouble and sadness.
But listen to his testimony! "But I ignore nothing" (Acts 20:24). And in another place he said: “So that no one is disturbed by these tribulations; because you yourselves know that for this we are ready ... being with you, we predicted that we would go through tribulations ”(1 Thessalonians 3: 3-4).
Paul was not complaining, he was reassuring these believers. “Why are they so surprised? I have told you all the time that if you are going to walk with Jesus, you will have afflictions. This goes directly against a philosophy in the American Church today, which says: "If your faith works correctly, you will prosper and not suffer." But that is not what the Bible teaches.
God certainly has the power to keep us from all afflictions, but He allows us to go through certain things. Every test that God allows is an investment he is making in us, a training exercise behind which, there is a divine purpose. Listen to what the psalmist says: “Because you, oh God, have tried us; You have refined us as silver is refined ”(Psalm 66:10).