Hosanna Restoration Church

I know that suffering is not something we really like to consider. Some feel that life with Christ should be nothing but suffering and others do not think we should ever suffer at all, but neither of these paths is what Jesus taught us. Jesus did not suffer continually in His life. He did not suffer continually in His ministry, unless you count having to put up with faithlessness around Him. There is a certain amount of suffering that goes on continually in all of our lives.

I will tell you that when I first discovered the truth of God’s word there were a lot of things I suffered with. I suffered with the reality that most of what I was doing in my life needed to be redirected, and I mean everything. Even the things that I felt were not so bad were really bad in the Light of the Word of God. I suffered with idea of tithing. I loved money and giving it to God in large amounts was not something I had previously excelled at! I suffered with believing God could or would really forgive me once and for all. I suffered with friends who did not quite understand what was going on. I suffered with lots of things, but to be honest I did not see it as suffering, because I had my eye on something so amazing that whatever it took was worth the effort. I had my eye on the Life that was in Christ Jesus.

To this day, I realize that there are all kinds of opportunities to suffer and that we can magnify them as large as we want to or we can give them to the Lord and keep our eye on Him. We really should understand however that to magnify suffering is to go against the example that Jesus provided. He took suffering to His Father! He did not drag it out nor did He ignore or deny it. He looked beyond it.

Jesus knows about temptation and He knows about the power to overcome it. While we might feel like it is too hard to leave sin behind, I doubt that our temptation to sin is anything compared the temptation Jesus had to call the whole thing off and let the angels clean up the mess on the earth. His confidence in the power of God to help us and His love for us caused Him to trust for our future life with Him.

James understood this when he told us to rejoice in the face of trials. Peter understood this as he expanded on the power of God for salvation with intermingled opportunities to grow strong in our faith. In 1 Peter 3:10, Peter asks, “Do you really love life? Do you want to be happy?” Right after this, he lists some suffering. “Stop saying cruel things. Quit telling lies. Give up your evil ways and do right as you find and follow the road to peace.” Some these things may be easy for you, but there is no doubt something in your life that you need help with. If you are struggle free, I applaud you but like Peter, I encourage you to stay alert because the devil is out there looking for your weak spot.

Just remember that we are not called to continual suffering any more that we are guaranteed that we will never suffer. We are simply guaranteed that God will take care of us if we trust Him.