Entering the Kingdom

After they had evangelized that town and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the hearts of the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith, and by telling them, “It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way into the kingdom of God.”
(Acts 14:21-22 Holman Christian Standard Bible ®©)

Paul spent much of his time teaching people about the Kingdom of God. In the first few sentences Luke wrote of Acts, he said Jesus was teaching about the Kingdom. In the last few, said Paul was teaching about the Kingdom.

In Acts 14, Luke recorded a snippet of Paul’s teaching about it: we get there through troubles. I infer that if our path is cluttered with troubles, we could likely take that as a confirmation that we are on the correct path. I also infer that if we spend most of our time avoiding troubles (including people who fit that description), that we may be straying from the shortest path to walking in the Kingdom now and preparing for walking in it later.

Brace up.