Job 23: 10
‘But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’

DAILY READING – Luke 17, Genesis 27; Psalm 22

In the 1960s, the atheist government of the Soviet Union worked hard to destroy Christianity in their nation. One of the methods they applied was to plant their agents in the leadership of the Churches. Pastors were required to cooperate with the agents of the Soviet secret police called the KGB, and submit to their regulations. The Pastors who refused to submit to these government agents were sentenced to prison.
Pastor Joseph Bondarenko was one of the courageous Church leaders who refused to compromise. As a result, he was listed among the KGB’s most wanted criminals. He was arrested three times and served a total of nine years in prison.
However, instead of seeing prison as punishment, he embraced it as an opportunity to preach to as many prisoners as he could, leading many of them to Christ. The government officials were infuriated to realize that in trying to punish Pastor Bondarenko, they had only made his ministry work easier by putting him right in the midst of spiritually hungry men. Therefore, he was severely punished and transferred from prison to prison. But everywhere he went he continued to spread the Gospel. By God’s grace, he escaped repeated attempts to kill and silence him.
As Christians continued to pray, the collapse of the Soviet Union and its atheist system came in 1991, bringing to an end the 70-year period of severe Christian persecution. Pastor Joseph was among the many imprisoned Christians who regained their freedom. The period he served in jail rather than diminish him only ended up expanding the scope of his ministry.

It takes wisdom to see doors of opportunities on the street of adversity.
Many times what looks like a setback is only a divine setup for our upliftment.
We need divine revelation of the Holy Spirit to see beyond immediate challenges.
When you sincerely serve God, you can be sure that the fire that was meant to destroy you, will only be used to increase you.
The same God that delivered the three Hebrew boys from the fiery furnace and promoted them knows how to deliver us from the fiery trials of life. By His grace, the things that were meant for your destruction will be turned around for your construction. While the enemy thought he was persecuting you, you were only being purified by the fire to come out better and stronger.
Though it had looked like tribulation, it will eventually end in jubilations and the Lord shall be glorified through your testimony.
When you are a covenant child of God, where you were meant to perish, you will only end up flourishing.
God is indeed faithful to those who refuse to compromise their faith and choose to serve Him even in the face of difficulties. You cannot rely on His grace and end up in disgrace.
Even in very tight situations trust that God has the capacity to open doors of greater opportunities and make a way for you where there had seemed to be no way. In this season, as we continually stand in faith and give glory to God, surely He will cause us to soar above all trials and rise to greater heights of destiny.

PRAYER
Lord, I thank You for Your continual faithfulness in my life. I truly want to bless You for Your marvelous helps in all my endeavors. Even right now, I know that Your amazing grace is working in my life to turn every test into a testimony for me in Jesus’ Name.

QUOTE
The test you are going through in life today is not for your destruction, it is for your testimony. – WORDBITE 222

Shalom!

@GOODHEART- EKWUEME .

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