Isaiah 27:5 Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.

Mercy and forgiveness are traits which are central to our Christian ways and something Christ Himself showed in abundance throughout His life on earth.

These are not things introduced by Christ but things demonstrated by Him which God has been trying to get into our heads for quite a while!

We may not want people who have wronged us to come back into our lives; Christ is using us to reach out to them and allow them to see how great His forgiveness can be!

Romans 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

This may sound masochistic to some, but that is not what Paul had in mind here; rather that he was willing to take whatever life dealt him so long as he could continue to receive Christ’s gifts.

Always looking on the bright side of life can be very difficult when life is getting on top of you, but that is what Paul is telling the Romans.

Do not let the big issues in life overcome our faith and our beliefs because each trial will strengthen us in some way for the fight ahead of us.

Christ will comfort you every step of the way.

1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

When you read up about how much heat and abuse ore has to go through to bring forward gold or steel, you will begin to see this statement in a different light.

God will allow things to come our way which we may not agree with and which we will not like – but how else is He going to allow us to see how important He is in our lives.

If we keep our eyes closed and our heart hard, then He has to use stronger and hotter environments before we weaken and let the ‘gold’ out!