It Hurts...

"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings..."

Rejoice?

When is the last time you "rejoiced" when a fiery trial came upon you?

It hurts...

Text message:

Him: "Hey brother if you could spare the time could you pray for me? Under attack again by the enemy--very tiresome. Can't wait for Christ to come back".

Me: "Remember. You're not a loser. You're not a liar. You're not abandoned and you're never alone".

Him: "I keep praying so hard and feel better for a while then spiral down again. It makes me feel my faith is not strong enough at times".

Me: "Exactly. You don't need faith when you are on top. The devil comes prowling when he sees you down".

Him: "So God is waiting for me to crumble to my knees? I have every night. I start the day off well and as it goes on, more and more voices in my head feeding negativity and telling me bad things". 

Me: "God let Satan tear down Job and it went on for a long time. 
Is it always long? No. 
God did promise that if you resist the devil he will leave you--but! he will come back! The devil HATES you. 
When you walk through these valleys of the shadow of death, God IS with you, but He wants you to walk by faith not by sight. 
Keep pressing in--God will eventually give relief, but probably long after you think He should. 
Just like a father training his son. 
Thank God that He considers you worthy to suffer--It hurts..."

Somehow we came up with this notion that suffering won't hurt.

No matter how you slice it--suffering hurts. Maybe the 'American Dream' has skewed our expectations, but Jesus clearly let us know that if He suffered--we would suffer.

We suffer tremendous mental anguish from fear, loss, poor health, stress, finances, life changes, death, fear of death, etc, etc, etc.
And that's not to mention the mental anguish we cause each other every day. The jealousy, anger, coveting, lying, unforgiveness...

 "and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)"

Oh wait, I just remembered. You're a tough guy. Superman. You don't suffer from mental anguish like the rest of us softies.
For the rest of us, let's continue on...

Real suffering

I think we have gotten this idea that if we are not beaten by the police or taunted by atheists then we are not "suffering for Jesus".
It's not true.
If Satan could get people to do us harm in the United States, he would, but for now he will use every mental tactic he can to keep us down, hurting, distracted and suffering.
Life sucks---here's why:
God created man and woman in a paradise. Man and woman chose to disobey God. God exiled them.
All of us(their children) are exiled also. Life has been HELL ever since(sickness, death, hatred, suffering, you name it---HELL).
Why do you think the world suffers with so many crackheads and drunkards? Because life is wonderful? No, because life sucks.
Sin.
Do we get glimpses of God's beauty and glory? Of course, but we all suffer under the curse placed upon our first parents.

So what then?

Maggie's life verse:

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
...but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
...Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God
...much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Check this out.
In one paragraph we are told why we endure suffering. We rejoice because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, Christ died for us, the wrath of God is removed from us and we are reconciled and saved by his life.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us".

If I have been unable to convince you that you suffer, I'd like to invite you to join us at the abortion clinic. Every day around our globe little people are being murdered. If you choose to stand up for these little defenseless ones, YOU WILL SUFFER!
You will receive verbal assaults, possible physical assaults(but rare), and most certainly demonic assaults.
So, won't you join us? It'll be fun. Just think of all the rejoicing you will get to do. :)

Suffer on brothers and sisters, suffer on...
Rejoice on brothers and sisters, rejoice on...

Song:
Calling me away



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