Successfully Suffering

 

Suffering, not a popular opening for any blog, sermon or motivational speech, however, a definite ingredient for a Christ centered life.

 According to https://bible.knowing-jesus.com the word suffer in the bible appears 240 times. 

Let's use Paul as a suffering example: From the Jews, 5 times he received flogging. Three times he was beaten with rods, once stoned, three times shipwrecked, and one night and day spent in the ocean. He dealt with perils of water, robbers, perils by his own people, perils by non believers, perils in the city and in the wilderness and accusations from false prophets. He was weary and in pain often hungry, thirsty, cold and naked. 

When Paul thought about going to Rome he probably thought he would go as an evangelist but I don't think he realized he would go as an evangelical prisoner. The thing is being in prison is what saved his life from the constant mobs who were trying to kill him. Technically the very people who incarcerated him were also keeping him alive.  So when it comes to suffering my daughter Jess says  "we get it Paul wins!" 

Sometimes the very places we are complaining to God about having us in are the very place that is saving our lives.

A woman I met at the addiction center shared a great testimony with me the other day. She left the facility a few months ago and relapsed. She told me she was offering her body for drug money or just begging when she could to get some cash. One day she went up to two men and asked them for money. One of the men gave her $20. and told her she  needed to find Jesus. She said she took the money and walked away. The truth is she knows Jesus, she's suffering with drug addiction. She told me she walked for a bit and then saw something on the ground that got her attention. 

  

As she got closer she realized it was a bible. When she picked it up the verse that seemed to jump off the page at her was Luke 9:23

“Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." 

She said that night the scariest thing happened, she was high, laying on the ground and was bit by a recluse spider. A few nights later she had a fever and convulsions, she was really sick. When she finally got her wits about her she called an ambulance. The doctor told her she could have died. When she was able to leave the hospital she came back to the facility where I met her. She was in the office waiting for the therapist and on the desk was a row of note cards with inspirational quotes on them along with a scripture. She randomly grabbed one and what verse do you think was on it? You got it, Luke 9:23! She told me she knew immediately that God was pursing her and that He must really love her to let that spider bite her.  This is an unusual way to look at suffering but it's suffering none the less. 

There are times we suffer because of disobedience and we are dealing with the circumstances of our choices and sometimes we suffer because God is using circumstances to teach us a life lesson.

I was talking to my son Nathanael about this and he said something so profound to me. He compared suffering to a disease needing a prescription. God being the great physician would evaluate your symptoms and write you a spiritual script. Nathanael reminded me that we are all praying and asking God to help us die to self, to look more like Yeshua (Jesus) to make us a vessel for Him. In turn God writes a prescription, of suffering if you will, that will get the results He and you are looking for.

For Nathanael the spiritual sickness was needing greater faith, the prescription, move out of state and losing all help from friends and family. There was great suffering dealing with all the circumstances they endured. The results, they know they can trust God with future suffering. 

Like any medication the kind used and the dosage amount prescribed is on an individual basis depending on the sickness and the severity of it.

 You may only require a small amount of suffering where someone else needs a lot more. What we do with the results is the most important, do we take our recovery back to our brothers and sisters and help them along their journey?

My daughter Amanda was a missionary in Africa years ago. While she was there she was diagnosed with cancer and needed surgery. She was in a very poverty stricken area and I begged her to come home for medical care. My daughter is very strong willed, don't know where she gets that from, and said God told her to stay there for the surgery. I was frantic. In my mind I pictured some guy sitting on a bucket with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth holding a knife to take her organs! 

If she wasn't coming to me I would go to her. A friend offered me her frequent flyer miles so I could fly to Uganda and save my daughter. As I was making travelling arrangements I heard the Holy Spirit ask me if I got permission from God. I was like, WHAT of course He wants me to go, but fine, I'll ask.  Well Gems He said no....

Our Father explained to me there were things He was going to do in Amanda's life that I would get in the way of. I was suffering with that decision.

I could relate to what Paul was saying in Philippians 1:12-14

Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel.  As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

In other words I had a plan to lessen my suffering but God had a better plan. We can't always control what medicine we need to take but we can control how we absorb it. My sickness at that moment was control over my child's health and safety because it was obvious God needed my help. The prescription was take my daughter 7700 miles away and don't let me travel. 

We  know that Jesus suffered greatly for us on the cross but have you ever thought God made him suffer to teach him obedience?  I read a scripture the other day in my study of Hebrews that blew my mind. 

Hebrews 5:8 Son though he was the son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

When Hebrews says that Jesus "learned obedience," it's saying that He was going through a new life experience via His on going journey of saying yes to God. He would agree to suffering, even to the point of death, as our sacrifice for sin. Remember Jesus was man and he experienced every emotion we have. Sometimes being obedient to what God asks of you can be extremely hard.

Gems, I don't know what prescription of suffering you are currently dealing with, but I do know God, The Great Physician will give you the strength to handle it successfully if you let Him. 

C. H. Spurgeon said  "Faith is the great sustaining energy when you are under trials, difficulties, suffering, or hard labor. The Holy Spirit implants an active, operative faith in the Christian. It is sent to sustain you during trials, and it is a riddle that we cannot explain. Divine purpose eternally fixes everything; nevertheless, the prayer of faith moves the arm of God. And though the mystery cannot be explained, the facts cannot be denied……”The very hairs of your head are numbered” (Matt. 10:30), so go to God with your trifles. Not a sparrow falls to the ground apart your Father’s will (Matt. 10:29), so throw your minor trials on the Lord. Never think that anything is too little for your heavenly Father’s love. He who rides the whirlwind (Is. 66:15) also walks in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). He who shakes the avalanche from its mountain (Ps. 46:3), also makes the autumn leaf twinkle as it falls from the adorn. “He has stretched out the heavens by His understanding” (Jer. 51:15). He guides each grain of dust that is blown from the summer’s threshing floor. Confide in Him for the little as well as the for the great. You will find that He does not fail. He is the God of the hills as well as the God of the valleys."

The good news is you can suffer successfully!