Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me…” The Hebrew for perfect means to end, finish, accomplish, to perform, fulfill. Our promise in Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Our trials are God’s way to perfect our journey towards maturity. They are the stamp of His intimate involvement in our lives. As we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, He is the one who produces the fruit of the Spirit in us. That fruit is evidence that we are walking in the Spirit and not in our flesh. Galatians 5:16.

Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” This fruit will be the characteristics in the lives of those controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. We bear the fruit that He produces in us. It is the result of our abiding in Him. John 15:8 says, “By this My Father is glorified…”

Hebrews 10:36 says, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” James 1:3 says, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

Romans 5:3 in the Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.”

God’s way through our trials develops His character in us. He endured the cross for us through joy. Nehemiah 8:10 says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Colossians 1:11 says, “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.”

Jesus’ gift of irrevocable joy was imparted to us the moment of our salvation. John 15:10-11 says, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Endurance through joy.

Every trial we encounter is God’s way in our journey of progressive sanctification. I love Psalm 18. They are David’s words after the Lord delivered him from Saul. Verse 1 says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength.”

Verse 30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect…” Verse 32 says, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” In Psalm 25:4 David wrote, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”

I want the Lord to make His ways known to me. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord revealed to Moses what He was going to do when they faced the Red Sea. The children of Israel saw His acts. They witnessed Him parting the Red Sea, getting them safely across, and then destroying their enemies.

James 1:3 in the J. B. Phillips says of our trials, “…don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” Trials expose our hidden flesh and crucifies it, which strengthens our inner man. 

Applying Colossians 3:16 equips us in biblical counseling. We bring His truth into our lives, and it experientially sets us free to set others free. John 8:32. Admonishing means to encourage, warn, exhort, or urge another, through the wisdom and insights we have personally walked in ~ our testimony of freedom.

The Lord seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24. Spending time in His Presence, and rehearsing His word back to Him is His delight. The truths we have gleaned from His word, become heart lyrics of adoration ~ spontaneous spiritual songs that bubble up through gratitude.

Psalm 33:1 says, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.” Here is the first verse of a new song. “I come to You O Lord in the womb of the morning. To sit and worship You and call upon Your name. You answer me with a sweetness that melts my heart. And opens me to receive Your words.” Psalm 40:3 says, “He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God…”

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

I learned that verse when I was a child. As I began meditating on it, the Holy Spirit showed me something I never noticed before. It is in two parts. The first part has to do with gathering insights from His word. The second part is worship to an audience of One.

His indwelling word acts like yeast in bread dough. It expands as we apply it to our lives. It helps us see through His perspective. John 15:7 in the Amplified says, “If you live in Me (abide vitally united to Me) and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts…”

James 1:25 says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it…a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Our personal application from Scripture brings inner transformation.

I was thinking about Paul and his letter to Timothy. He was instructing him in 1 Timothy 1:1-11. Then in verses 12-16 he was recounting how the Lord’s grace enabled him to preach the gospel. As he continued, he burst into praise. Verse 17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Our heart is our belief center. God’s word, hidden in our hearts, is the source of our praise. We learn more and more about Him as we read, memorize, and meditate. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through His exceeding great and precious promises, we become “…partakers of the divine nature…”

Worship is a lifestyle ~ not an event. The Psalms are full of verses that will teach our hearts how to honor and magnify the Lord through praise. Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” The experiential truths that inhabit our hearts, cause us to lift Him up through true worship.

I continued to meditate on the Lord bringing us into intimate communion with Him in the high and holy place. I don’t know about you, but the walls of my finite mind were reverberating, seeking to understand Infinite. My mind went back to Psalm 8:4. It says, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”

Moses met with the Lord in a tent that he called the tabernacle of meeting. Exodus 33:7. Verse 9 says that each time Moses went out to the tabernacle, “…the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.”

Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Colossians 1:27 says, “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Our heart is His tabernacle. Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” The Hebrew for enthroned means: to dwell, sit, remain, abide. 

Isaiah 57:15 says, “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite one.”

As I began to meditate on this verse, my mind stopped at ‘who inhabits eternity.’ I thought, ‘but wait, He dwells in me.’ The Hebrew for inhabit means: to settle down, abide, dwell, tabernacle, reside.

John 15:1-8 is all about abiding in the Vine. Verse 7 defines what it means to abide. The Amplified says, “If you live in Me (abide vitally united to Me)…” Isaiah 57:15 goes on to say, “…I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit…”

John 15:5 in the Amplified ends with, “…apart from Me (cut off from vital union with Me) you can do nothing.” When that truth is like wallpaper in our hearts, we will remain contrite and humble. Remember ~ God gives grace to the humble.

In 1 Timothy 2:4 Paul recorded the Lord’s heart. It says, “Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” That takes us to 2 Peter 3:9. It says that He is, “…longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

1 Timothy 2:2 ends with the way we are to comport ourselves so that the gospel can be received by others. We are to live in all godliness and reverence. Ask yourself: Does my life exemplify the Lord in every aspect? Worship is a lifestyle. 

I love Psalm 25:14 in the Amplified. It says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

1 Peter 1:17 says, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.” Lord, help us to please you in all our ways.

I started meditating on 1 Timothy 2:1. It says, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men.” Paul used the same three ways in Philippians 4:6. I wanted a working definition for the difference between the three ways. 

I looked it up in all my resources. Nothing satisfied me until I found what I wanted in Matthew Henry’s commentary. His definition resonated with my spirit. It means to come humbly before the Lord, petitioning Him to avert evil; prayers for the obtaining of good; intercession for others.

For years Ezekiel 22:30 has been my understanding for intercession. It says, “So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

1 Timothy 2:2-3 says that we are to pray for all in authority. Why? That we may live in quiet and peace, and to have the freedom to proclaim the gospel and advance His Kingdom.