I spent years trying to make sense of a particular suffering that didn't make sense. Regardless of any suffering, God can turn it to a testimony. We go through trials, it is part of life. What is always in a legal trial? A testimony. You do not have to just sit and suffer as the trial goes down, but be a witness in your trial as to who God is and what He has done in the midst of it. Not all suffering is sent by God,though God does test us. Ultimately all suffering is because we live in a world fallen by sin and suffering reveals how truly ugly sin is and it's consequence, it warns us that because of sin there is suffering, so we need to hate sin as we see all the destruction it has brought forth. God does allow suffering though, just like He allows us to be tempted, yet He does not tempt anyone. When God allows, we must let the fiery trial refine us and our character,revealing what is hidden in our hearts and letting God turn our hearts to Godly character. Responding the right way to what God allows is critical, instead of failing the test of being found faithful and allowing a bitter root to grow and destroy us from the inside (Hebrews 12:15).
God allows trials to increase our character, as we read here:
God allows trials to increase our character, as we read here:
Romans 5:3,4
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
James 1: 2-4
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Psalm 119:71
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes."
God's ultimate goal, is to make us like His Son, so if suffering makes me more like Him with His character traits I would not otherwise have, I welcome what God will use to make me like Jesus.
Psalm 119:71
"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn your statutes."
God's ultimate goal, is to make us like His Son, so if suffering makes me more like Him with His character traits I would not otherwise have, I welcome what God will use to make me like Jesus.
Of course in the suffering you think “How could you allow this God?” But you do not see the story from the other side and what He can accomplish through you if you allow your trial to turn into a testimony. For years, I did not see or understand the fruit of how God was going to use my suffering; After being forced away from the town I grew up in and loved, also suffering great physical/mental/emotional and even spiritual, trauma from an abusive father who ended up trying to kill me and almost did (much blood was donated to keep me alive). I now can say I have seen the fruit in eternal value. My testimony allows me to have empathy toward hurt people and share the reason for the hope in me (1 Peter 3:15) that doesn’t make sense to this world. I have seen the lost come to Christ who had experienced other traumas and when they heard how God saved me from despair, attempted suicide, from hatred and anger, how He gave me the power to forgive, and the joy on my face, they realize they are not hopeless either and some have accepted Christ.
Note this: If just one soul gets saved , as a result of God using the circumstances in your life, to create a testimony to reach their heart, in a way that someone who hasn’t suffered could not, it is worth any suffering you have endured.
I do not say that ignorantly or hypocritically as I intimately know the suffering of near death,abuse,loss of justice (no jail time for attacker as he got off with insanity defense) and years of trauma to the point of madness that brought attempted suicide. God lifted me out to help those still in it.Ask God to make your temporary suffering have eternal value. Even 90 years of suffering would be worth one soul not suffering forever and by far worse. So whatever your suffering has been, small or major, be sure to keep the right attitude and confidence in God to use it for His glory and ask Him to be glorified in it.Ask Him to use it as a testimony for people suffering similarly. If you have been divorced or abandoned or raised in a broken home, reach out to the lost who are going through the hurt of broken relationships, if you have suffered trauma, reach out to victims similar, if chronic pain, reach out to those physically hurting and depressed from it. When people who are suffering without Christ see how you overcame because of Him, or, how you are currently dealing with it and having joy that doesn’t make sense; it will draw them to want to know the reason for the hope that is in you.
Don’t allow bitterness to ruin your story and defeat the purpose God can make for your suffering. With great suffering can come a great testimony. Even tiny insignificant suffering, like being stuck at a long red light, instead of fretting something you can't change, use that time to sing a praise song to God, you might wish it stayed red longer...
Don’t allow bitterness to ruin your story and defeat the purpose God can make for your suffering. With great suffering can come a great testimony. Even tiny insignificant suffering, like being stuck at a long red light, instead of fretting something you can't change, use that time to sing a praise song to God, you might wish it stayed red longer...
The bible mentions patience and perseverance in suffering, there is also here where Peter writes:
2 Peter 1:5-11
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
Wonderful, eternal promises in the next verse 10-11:
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
You need to understand this and grow and live in God's word so you are prepared for trials ahead and so you don't turn from Christ out of an unexpected event in life that can easily bring bitterness. There is also a suffering you need to be prepared for because it is completely voluntary and avoidable, yet shouldn't be avoided, because there is a much greater eternal suffering if you refuse it, because to refuse it is to deny Christ, and Christ promised if we deny Him He will deny us (Mathew 10:33), How can you go to Heaven if the only way in there denies you? That suffering I am referring to is promised to the Godly (2 Timothy 3:12), it is persecution, not a popular promise to claim out of scripture...but it as much a promise as any other promise in the Bible, something prosperity preachers tend to avoid "naming and claiming." Persecution is avoided by the unfaithful 'among' the Church, when they deny Christ in order to escape the suffering of persecution; whether it be from Universities mocking you and failing you, keeping you from a degree you have put so much time and debt into because you won't do immoral assignments, employers firing you for not condoning sinful co-worker behavior,witnessing or for posting truth online, friends forsaking you, whomever. Count the cost (Luke 9:23,24/Luke 14:26-33), for all who desire to live Godly will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12, this includes Americans too) and prepare yourself, as we are in a spiritual war.
If you are suffering right now, have suffered, or will in the future, you need to lean on the everlasting arms and let God make something good out of it, so that your suffering is not in vain, and to spare someone else from eternal suffering. Stay in walking and trusting in God’s word, because your own heart will deceive you (Jeremiah 17:9) to feel so sorry for yourself, that you are blind to the desperate need of the hurting world around you, and it will keep you from knowing Joy in suffering. Make Satan regret that he attacked you by using it for the glory of God.
p.s.-
In case you were wondering about the 'hate' for families that Jesus referred to in Luke 14:26, it doesn't mean to actually hate someone, because that would contradict Christ's second greatest commandment to love everyone as yourself. It is meant as comparison, We must love Christ far above all to where our love for others could be mistaken as hatred -compared to- our love for God. We must be willing to choose him over the approval of our families,friends,job positions, whatever, even if it means losing those things because they reject the truth (Jesus) that we are devoted to with our lives. We would hate losing Jesus more, than over losing family, because of them rejecting Him, and would thus choose to lose anything over denying Christ or compromising for a 'watered-down' faith for the sake of 'peace' in the home. This hatred can also mean, as Paul described, counting everything loss for Christ (Philippians 3:8), like if God called you to the mission field in some distant land (we're all missionaries technically, but I am describing an actual physical location move) it would require you to lose everything as you know it, even losing time with Godly family, possessions, and the American Dream...are you willing to give that all away if Christ so called you? He knows your heart, so don't just say "yes!" to that to make yourself feel 'Christian'. Count the cost, if you're not willing to pay, do not call yourself a Christian (that sounds harsh, but the truth is harsh to those who hate it), since Christ demands all, and He Himself gave all for you. He doesn't demand all with hypocrisy, He has not given any order He wasn't been willing to do Himself, Our mighty good leader led by example, just look at Genesis 22:2 when God gave Abraham a test of sacrificing his one and only son,whom he loved...which God would actually end up doing Himself in John 3:16. That is why it sounds so familiar. Give everything you have to Jesus, that doesn't mean you gotta go be a homeless preacher, (like I used to think before reading Timothy in the Bible, In Timothy, Paul rebukes men who don't work and provide for their family -1 Timothy 5:8-), however, the willingness to part with anything at anytime for any cost must be in your heart towards God, even if it does cost you your job or where you live, or if you have to switch jobs in order not to commit immoral tasks like the Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis,was willing to give up.
I know this is a long "p.s.-", but that verse needed clarification, especially for those young in the faith, and it is related because it too is a form of suffering.
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If you are suffering right now, have suffered, or will in the future, you need to lean on the everlasting arms and let God make something good out of it, so that your suffering is not in vain, and to spare someone else from eternal suffering. Stay in walking and trusting in God’s word, because your own heart will deceive you (Jeremiah 17:9) to feel so sorry for yourself, that you are blind to the desperate need of the hurting world around you, and it will keep you from knowing Joy in suffering. Make Satan regret that he attacked you by using it for the glory of God.
p.s.-
In case you were wondering about the 'hate' for families that Jesus referred to in Luke 14:26, it doesn't mean to actually hate someone, because that would contradict Christ's second greatest commandment to love everyone as yourself. It is meant as comparison, We must love Christ far above all to where our love for others could be mistaken as hatred -compared to- our love for God. We must be willing to choose him over the approval of our families,friends,job positions, whatever, even if it means losing those things because they reject the truth (Jesus) that we are devoted to with our lives. We would hate losing Jesus more, than over losing family, because of them rejecting Him, and would thus choose to lose anything over denying Christ or compromising for a 'watered-down' faith for the sake of 'peace' in the home. This hatred can also mean, as Paul described, counting everything loss for Christ (Philippians 3:8), like if God called you to the mission field in some distant land (we're all missionaries technically, but I am describing an actual physical location move) it would require you to lose everything as you know it, even losing time with Godly family, possessions, and the American Dream...are you willing to give that all away if Christ so called you? He knows your heart, so don't just say "yes!" to that to make yourself feel 'Christian'. Count the cost, if you're not willing to pay, do not call yourself a Christian (that sounds harsh, but the truth is harsh to those who hate it), since Christ demands all, and He Himself gave all for you. He doesn't demand all with hypocrisy, He has not given any order He wasn't been willing to do Himself, Our mighty good leader led by example, just look at Genesis 22:2 when God gave Abraham a test of sacrificing his one and only son,whom he loved...which God would actually end up doing Himself in John 3:16. That is why it sounds so familiar. Give everything you have to Jesus, that doesn't mean you gotta go be a homeless preacher, (like I used to think before reading Timothy in the Bible, In Timothy, Paul rebukes men who don't work and provide for their family -1 Timothy 5:8-), however, the willingness to part with anything at anytime for any cost must be in your heart towards God, even if it does cost you your job or where you live, or if you have to switch jobs in order not to commit immoral tasks like the Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis,was willing to give up.
I know this is a long "p.s.-", but that verse needed clarification, especially for those young in the faith, and it is related because it too is a form of suffering.
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