The Blessing of Suffering

God is good to all His
children. When we accept Jesus Christ and are born again we become
children of God, and God takes care of us. He teaches us His ways and
one of the ways in which He teaches us His ways is through His
discipline. He often uses suffering to teach us His ways.

The purpose of suffering
is to test us to see what is in our heart. Are we serious about
Jesus? Are we serious about obeying Him, following Him and living
according to His words. He also uses suffering to humble us and to
give us understanding. God used suffering to test Job, and when he
was in his distress his wife said to him:"Why don't you curse
God and die." Job never sinned against God and proved that he
was faithful and true to God. God used suffering to discipline the
children of Israel. We read in Deuteronomy 8:3 "He humbled you
and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know,
nor that your fathers know that He might make you understand that man
does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that
proceeds out of the mouth of God."

We often become arrogant
because we do not understand that it is the hand of God that supports
us, and that keeps us alive. It is good that we develop ourselves,
that we work hard, but when we become proud and arrogant and we think
that it is by our own power that we are gaining wealth and that
things are going well with us, then God often closes all the doors.
All our plans fall to pieces. In spite of our talent, our experience,
our education, things don't work out. We might lose our job, our
business might fall to pieces and then we realize that even with our
best effort we are not able to contain everything. We are not able to
live our lives the way that we wish, because without God we can do
nothing, without Jesus we can do nothing.

The medical profession has
its place and medicine has its place but when God puts a sickness on
you where medication cannot take the pain away, the doctor cannot
help, then you realize that there is a Power that is greater than all
of this, and this is what God does with His children. Many of them
are going through suffering and they do not understand why. They are
children of God, they are serious about God, but they are in
suffering. their lives are falling to pieces, but they do not
understand that they are being tested. Am I faithful to Jesus? Do I
really trust Him, or do I trust in myself more than Him? Is Jesus my
Healer or do I trust more in medication and in the doctor? Do I have
other idols? God is testing me. We become so proud, we think that we
can control our destiny, that we can make our lives, we can build our
own fortunes, and then God destroys our plans everything falls to
pieces. How do we react? Do we curse God? Do we go against God, or do
we see His hand in this? Do we humble ourselves before Him and
say:"Lord, Thy will be done."? Because all His ways are
loving kindness. He cares for us and He will never leave us. He will
never forsake us and therefore He often uses these severe methods,
severe suffering to bring us to our senses, to test us, to try us, to
humble us, to give us understanding, that life comes from Him.

All good things come from
Him. Without Jesus we can do nothing. How do we react to suffering?
How do we react to the test, to the discipline that He puts us
through? Do we become hateful and resentful toward God and show what
is in our heart that we are not serious about Him that we are selfish
and arrogant? Or do we humble ourselves and say:"Lord teach me
Thy ways." Do we become humble before Him and do we gain
understanding? It is the will of God that we learn understanding,
that we learn that man will not live from bread alone, that man will
not live from his own endeavors alone. If the Lord does not build the
house it is in vain that those build it work on it. If the Lord does
not guard the city in vain does the guardman watch because, God keeps
us safe. It is Jesus that determines our life and we need to learn to
understand that is the discipline that God is putting on us, the
suffering that He is putting us through, is it teaching us wisdom?
Are we being proven to truly love Him and trust Him? Are we allowing
ourselves to be humbled by Him and are we learning to trust in Him in
all situations so that we can know that without Him we can do
nothing, but nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ. He can do all
things. Let us submit ourselves to the Master let us listen to Him
when He speaks to us. Let us accept His discipline and learn from
Him. Let us gain understanding and allow Him to change us and to mold
us into His likeness so that we can fit into the kingdom of God. He
we started the good work in us will complete it if we stay with Him,
if we submit to Him and allow Him to form us and to make us so that
we can be to His glory.

May Jesus bless you.