Sorting the Good From the Bad
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and although I’m a pretty upbeat person, there are times I lose my cool. Like the other day, all of a sudden, it seemed as though everyone needed everything done now. Under stress, I snapped at my co-worker and immediately felt guilty. I knew I couldn’t justify myself by blaming my circumstances. And so I was quick to apologize. 1 Peter 4 says, “This is the season when judgment begins with the household of God.” Yep, God will often put on the pressure to expose bad things of which we need to repent. Pain and problems are a judgment because they sort out the good from the bad in us. A hard day when the heat is on provides a backdrop which enables you to see your own evil more clearly. But the neat thing is, this sort of judgment, this suffering, also equips us to purge the nastiness inside us. It’s one reason to welcome that trial today as a friend.