As referenced in the introduction to these messages, we must be careful to properly define the term "adventure." Both joyous purpose and challenging difficulty comprise the determination to walk by faith in a fallen realm.
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).
Note the interesting correlation made by the Lord Jesus Christ regarding peace: tribulation; good cheer; His overcoming. In our present existence, a life of genuine tranquility of heart - as defined and enabled by God - involves the presence of trouble rather than its absence. Indeed, our Heavenly Father would save us in our difficulties before saving us from them. Tribulation comes. We usually experience the normal "bad cheer" human reaction, as it were, to trouble. The Spirit of God and the Word of God then remind, encourage, and challenge us to trust and submit ourselves to our Heavenly Father. We make the choice to rejoice rather than sink into our initial fleshly reaction, thus leading to the deep inner peace of Christ that can be known in all things. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee" (Isaiah 26:3). We thus discover and experience the Lord Jesus as peace, in contrast to the worldly version that requires pleasant and tranquil circumstance and situation.
This is adventure, the "adventures in God" that comprise the reason for which our hearts were made and born again. No blessing and no challenge compares with this ongoing opportunity to join our Lord in overcoming the challenges of a fallen world. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith" (I John 5:4). We are only truly alive (experientially) when accepting life in these Christ-filled terms. "The just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17). The way is not easy, but by definition, adventures never are. It is, however, the way to true peace, the peace of the Lord Jesus. We were made for Him, and for presently knowing Him in the furnaces and forges of the earth rather than the Heavenly perfections of our eternal future. Thus, we do well to accept the fact that "in the world ye shall have much tribulation," and to realize that such a path of challenge paves our way to the realized peace of the Prince of peace. Yes, the blessedness and tribulations of adventures in God usher our hearts to rest as we realize the opportunities to know and honor Him in such a time as this…
"Glorify ye the Lord in the fires."
(Isaiah 24:15)
Weekly Memory Verse
The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
(Psalm 24:1)
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