August 5, 2026, rise up, my beloved brothers and sisters. Rise up from the dust. Let us not forget that Christ Himself has personally chosen us to work for Him in His vineyard: The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard (Matthew 20.1). Out of our love for Him, we accepted this call. Now nothing in our lives will ever be the same again.
That we are doing this out of love does not, however, mean that it will be easy. Although the burning flame of bridal love gives us the energy that we need to constantly swim upstream against the force of the Fall, work is work, and that is where the battle begins: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2.12).
If we are going to attain our goal of becoming purified vessels who bear Christ, we have to struggle and we have to struggle hard: I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3.14). Every tear that we shed as we fight is, however, counted by Christ: You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? (Psalm 56.8).
Christ sees every sacrifice of love that we make, whether of note to others or meaningful only to us (and Him), in order to uphold His holiness in this unholy world, and He keeps a record of each and every one of them: I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books (Revelation 20.12).
We have been enlisted as soldiers: No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier (2 Timothy 2.4). Soldiers who battle in the heavenlies: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6.12).
Battling in the heavenly places is not always as fun as it sounds: To you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1.29). We are body, soul and spirit. In order to be transformed into Christlikeness these three elements need to be purified, sanctified and reformed, according to their original design, and this is a process that involves pain and takes time.
What we can be assured of, however, is that if the suffering that we endure is for Christ, it is not suffering that we will endure alone. Christ is magnetically drawn to those who agrees to suffer for Him. He walks with them and remains with them, whether they are in the highest heights of their own open heavens or whether they are in the deepest, most degraded depths, of their own personal hells: I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28.20b).
Lord, You alone know the degree to which we suffer for Your sake. Knowing that You know what we are going through, and that you honor it, makes it possible to bear. Thank you for filling us with Your divine glory and for making our lives mean something by showing us where they are situated within Your divine plan for the salvation of the world. Please forgive us for how rapidly we forget Your promises and fall into the sin of doubt, and please pour Your divine grace into our inner beings, so that we may rise to work for You, and eventually reign with You, in Your glorious Kingdom.
Amen +
