Sooo... I was a little pre-emptive with my last blog, it seems that I have not started back up again as soon as I thought I would. Anyhow, not to dwell on what's been.
As I mentioned in my last blog I thought I'd have a look at suffering. As it so happens I don't actually have much to say on the subject... I don't think.
We often view suffering as some kind of punishment, as though since we're suffering we must have done something wrong in order to have deserved it. This has some grounding in that if we sin and continue to turn from God than we should not be surprised if we find that we are undergoing some kind of suffering. But the assumption behind this is that you only suffer if you have done wrong and this is where it is incorrect.
Think back to when you were just a child. What made you suffer and what were the motives behind it? If you are honest with yourself it is probably your parents in rebuking and disciplining you that caused much of your 'suffering'. The motives behind this should have been out of love, to show you the error of your ways that you might learn what is right and wrong, and build good character. If our earthly parents do this how much more than will our Father in Heaven do this? That we might be built up in Him with godly character through those tests and trials.
In talking of this let us not get confused with temptation though. For to tempt us is not in line with what we know of Gods character. To tempt is to call us to sin, calling us to turn to our sinful nature and not fight against it to be as we were created to be, in Gods image. Temptation comes from the devil but there is hope against it as we hear in 1 Corinthians 10:13
'No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.'God is almighty, more powerful than the devil or any temptation.
There is but a third type of suffering. We read of Paul in Colossians 1:24
'I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church...'
and again in 2 Timothy 1:8
'Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God...'
We are promised that as long as we are in Him and doing His work, there will be suffering. Jesus said
'If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, Yet because you are not of the world, therefore the world hates you.' (John 15:18-19)We are no longer of the world living and revelling in our sinful ways but have turned from them, repenting, to live a life of worth. We are different, we stand out, we are not accepted.
How then, why then, do we expect to be both? To live as a child of God but also enjoy comfort on a worldly scale, free from suffering on a worldly scale. We must understand that these are different. Suffering is in the world, and everyone will suffer as we are all sinful, living in a creation which is also suffering. The real question is what are we suffering for? We can suffer as the world suffers or we can suffer for the gospel in the world.
My question to you then is.. What do you think about suffering.. and what are you suffering for?
God Bless
