Even as regenerate children of God we should not be surprised at the pain and suffering in our lives because we live in a fallen world, which thankfully will one day be made perfect by the exercise of Christ’s power.

We ought to be amazed at God’s grace in patiently calling us to a genuine repentance and working in us a true conversion that necessarily brings about evident and lasting changes in our lives.

We must see our absolute necessity to repent of our sins regardless of any sense of security we may feel based on a relative comparison of our sinfulness.

Understanding that God is able to be gracious toward us because his perfect justice was satisfied on the cross should prompt us to be profoundly grateful and extraordinarily gracious toward others.

We must recognize human culpability before God when people ignore and reject his saving message because they stubbornly refuse to hear the truth since it is not what they want to hear.

While one day all pain and problems will be behind us, for now we must draw strength from God’s family as we endure the sting of strained and fractured relationships that are inevitable because of our alliance with Christ.

We will all be fairly and judiciously held accountable for our response to God’s call to employ our time, talent, and resources to serve Christ and advance his kingdom.

We must make certain that we are personally and spiritually prepared for the powerful, glorious, and imminent return of Christ; and rightly be fearful if we are not.