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| “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” |
| —1 Peter 1:6 AKJV (emphasis added) |
Someone once told me that the word “manifold” in the Bible means “many-colored.” Having never studied Hebrew or Greek, I can only take his word for it. The Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, defines the word manifold as: “marked by diversity or variety… a whole that consist of many diverse elements.”
In some translations of the verse at the beginning of this blog post, “temptations” is rendered as “trials.” Who hasn’t spent time “in heaviness through various trials?”
As you observe your own trials and then look at those of others, you realize that trials never seem exactly the same from person to person. However, the antidotes God gives for our trials also come in a variety of solutions.
In 1 Peter 4:10 we are told to minister to one another with the manifold grace of God. How comforting to know that we can meet manifold trials with God’s manifold grace. If we need financial help, God can meet that need through His grace. If we need wisdom, He can give us that through His grace. If we need strength and peace, He has all manner of such qualities to give us through His grace.
Jesus, in His teaching in the “Sermon on the Mount” (see Matthew 7: 7-11), told His disciples to ask, seek and knock for those things which we need. He went on to say:
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake: If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
How wonderful to understand that our God knows each of us individually, knows our trials, and has the ability to meet each one! He has a variety of solutions for us. In His love, He wants us to see His manifold—even “many colored”—grace that He lavishes on us as His children: manifold grace for manifold trials.
Praise Him for His excellent goodness!
