Why this Suffering?
* Suffering either gives me my self or it destroys my self.
Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
When life tumbles in, leaving us mystified, are we allowing God to plant Hope, Love, Freedom and Faith in our minds and hearts? Do we humbly recognize his inscrutable wisdom?
If we are faithful to do our part, God will always be faithful to do His!
* “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”James 4:8
But those who suffer He delivers in their suffering; He speaks to them in their affliction. – Job 36:15
*God’s ways are not our ways.
* His preparation of His warriors seems cruel and hurtful at times.
*God’s ways are much higher than ours. **Trust the God of the universe that He CAN orchestrate the events of your life when they seem the darkest.
What shall I say? Father, save me, from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. — John 12:27-29
My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is Not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may Preserve the self God created me to be through every fire of sorrow.
*** Our Lord received Himself in the fire of sorrow, He was saved not from the hour, but OUT of the hour.
*Lord I ask that you help us learn to pray to grow nearer to you. To hear your voice and follow your will. Lord I ask too that you show us your good and perfect plans. Father thank you for your love and your unending promises and grace.
We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to receive ourselves in its fires.
* If we try and evade sorrow, refuse to lay our account with it, we are foolish. *Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life; it is no use saying sorrow ought not to be.
**Sin and sorrow and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.
*Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always make a man better.
* Suffering either gives me my self or it destroys my self.
* If a man has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, he has no time for you. *If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people
I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes–I, and not another (Job 19:25-27a).
This is one of the great words of faith in the Old Testament,of the resurrection of the body found in the Word of God.
Slowly, through the anguish and gloom of this man’s heart, born out of the passion and the pathos that he feels, comes the dawning realization that God is working out a great and mighty Purpose, and that one of these days God Himself (Job has never failed to see God’s great majesty and power) shall be visibly present before people.
*God is working out a purpose!!!
“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” (Ps 13:1-2).
When David wrote his psalms he was honest about what he was feeling. However, David never stayed in the place of despair. He often ended his psalms like this one.
*** “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me” (Ps 13:5-6).
David chooses to focus on what God HAS DONE for him, not what He has not done.
*David’s situation did not change from verse 1 to verse 5, but his Perspective and Attitude changed. He was wrestling with God’s timing, plan, attention…but ultimately David trusts in God’s love and remembers God’s favor and faithfulness to him.
*If you are waiting for a breakthrough with God, be honest with Him about your hopes, concerns and dreams.Pray!
* However, also affirm your Faith and Trust in Him to accomplish HIS Purposes through your life.
In times of despair, it is harder to hold on than to give up. BUt if we give up on the LORD, we give in to a life of DESPAIR.
God forgive me for NOT consistently praising Your name. You are great and worthy to be praised for all that You have done and will do.
Thank You, Lord, that You have sent Jesus to be my Redeemer, and I can trust that You are working out Your purposes even through my current sufferings. Help me to accept what You have in store for me and move forward as the sphere in which I am to live to the glory of God.
Father, thank You for the encouragement I receive from Your Perfect Word in the Bible through the Holy Spirit. Help me to take heart in what trials and sufferings I may be going through and know that You will bring me through.
I thank you God for always being so great to me. Even in my times of heartache and suffering you were there to lean on. I will Never forget how kind You have been to me and how great You are today. To God be the Glory. Forever and Ever. Amen
1 Peter 2: 20…But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. 25 For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.