You can suffer in one of two ways. Whether or not you will suffer is not in your control. Face it, you are going to suffer! Many Christians spend the bulk of their time trying to avoid suffering. This is certainly a healthy thing to do, no one wants to hurt. But many Christ followers buy into the American idea that suffering is some strange phenomenon that is not supposed to interrupt our comfortable lives. Trials and hardships often seem out of place for us. We forget that Jesus said we will have problems in this world (John 16:33, Matthew 6:34). We forget that Paul said if anyone wants to live a godly life, he will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12). Peter warns us not to be surprised at the trial that comes upon us, as if something strange were happening (1 Pet. 4:12). At some point, if we are not careful, we can feel entitled to a life of comfort and ease. But we are not. We are going to suffering, hurt, face trials, endure stress, go through pain, and have our faith stretched and tested. So we can suffer in two ways.
We Can Suffer Away From God
We can become angry and bitter at God. We can sin to get back at Him for causing us so much pain. We can blame ourselves and our own sin for our suffering. We can try and manipulate God with our self-righteous acts so He will stop our suffering. We can forget Him, stop meeting with the local body of believers, stop reading our Bibles, and cave in to our own self-sufficiency. In this case, we are suffering away from God. Our pain, which is meant to drive us toward Him, pushes us farther away from Him because we think we deserve better.
We Can Suffer Toward God
But we can also suffer toward God. We can press into Him. We can pray, seek, rest, listen, wait, hope, obey, worship. We can trust that He is doing something! We can lift our eyes toward Him and refuse to believe that His love has left us. We can think of the joys of Heaven that await us since the present sufferings aren’t worth comparing to our future glory (Romans 8:18). We can get busy with doing good to others. We can refuse to allow the fleeting pleasures of sin to give us relief and comfort. We can turn off the TV and open our Bibles. We can live in such a way that unbelievers, who know our pain, will see that we cherish something more than an easy, middle class, predictable life.
GB
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
