Test lessons: we see a greater reward

Test lessons: we see a greater reward   1 Pet 5:10 But the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory in Jesus Christ, after you have suffered a little time, he himself perfects you, affirms, strengthens and establishes. Successfully enduring trials leads us to a greater focus on glorifying God in the future. Sufferings and trials teach us patience. However, in Heaven we will not need to be patient and therefore it is not the greatest long-term lesson that God wants us to learn from trials. He is much more pleased if we hold on to the truth that what we suffer now is directly related to our ability to glorify Him in eternity. Praising God will be our role in Heaven (Rev 4-5) and Paul reminds us that "If we suffer, we will also reign with him" (2Tim 2:12) In other words, if we learn to endure trials and tribulations now, we can expect to receive greater reward in eternity. I believe that the reward is primarily the ability to glorify God and therefore the more we endure in our present, the greater our ability to glorify Him in the future. At some point during Jesus' ministry with the disciples, two of them (the brothers John and James) wanted me to put them in the two most prestigious positions in His kingdom: sit on their right and left (Matt 20: 20-23 ). Santiago and Juan recognized the concept of eternal reward, but did not understand how it worked. So Jesus asked them if they were ready to endure the cup of suffering and death (like Him) before occupying such positions of power in His kingdom (v22). This implies once again that they endure in trials and advancement in future glory. They are correlated. (Jesus endured the greatest suffering on the cross and was raised to the highest position, at the right hand of the Father) The application for us of all this is clear: the Lord wants us to realize that the end of each trial contains much satisfaction and joy because we are building our future capacity to glorify Him. At the same time, we are understanding more and more of the value of perseverance through all kinds of pain and tribulation (Rev 2:10) By John MacArthur