Checkmate! Your game pieces obediently moved at your command filling you with triumphant joy. Finally, the game is over and you have conquered. The game of life continues, and God is in command. He is looking for obedient game pieces to move at His directive.

During suffering, realities of life change our perspective on priorities. Suddenly, the trivial and petty things that used to mean so much to us, mean almost nothing. Through these times, God refocuses our vision and realigns our priorities with His.

In my article 5 Reasons to Use the King James Version, I said that some of the features most criticized in the King James Bible are among the best reasons to keep it! For example, consider the thee’s and thou’s. The King James Version was not written in the everyday language of people on the street in 1611.

Without hesitation, I can say that God has done His greatest works in my life through seasons of adversity. Sometimes, however, in moments of introspection we wonder, Why all the suffering?

A hog and a hen sharing the same barnyard heard about a church’s program to feed the hungry. The hog and the hen discussed how they could help. The hen said, “I’ve got it! We’ll provide bacon and eggs for the church to feed the hungry.”

Constructive criticism is an incredible asset. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend….” Some of the most helpful advice and counsel I have ever received has come in the form of such “wounds.”

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul told Timothy to, “Purge himself from these” in order to become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use.” The “these” from which Timothy must purge himself in order to be used of God are false teachers, such as Hymenaeus and Philetus.

Perhaps it was ingrained into our minds during elementary school, but there is something about summertime that seems to change people’s thinking. Even adults seem to develop a kind of “recess mentality” that focuses on self and lets responsibility slide.