This Week's Topic: The Problem of Pain
Suffering Should Be Expected
“since others boast about their human achievements, I will, too . . . . Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. 28 Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? 30 If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am."
2 Corinthians 11:18-30 (NLT)
Why?
1. We live in a selfish broken world. No one is exempt from suffering.
2. Christians will encounter opposition from others who are antagonistic to their faith
3. Christians do not “fight with the weapons of the world”. (10:4)
4. Christians act with integrity and honesty in a world that honors conflicting values.
5. God will not allow Christians in the end to rely on their own power, but in their weakness to experience God’s power.
6. God will stop at nothing to grow us up. To grow from what I am now to become what he wants us to become requires the pain of change.
Are you able to find blessing in your suffering and consequent weakness?
Prayer
“Lord, please help never to complain about the pain I encounter, rather to be grateful that you are at work in and through the very thing that is causing me to suffer. Amen."
Jesus told us that eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus, whom God sent (Jn 17:3), and He did not have in mind intellectual knowledge (Mk 3:11), but experiential knowing (Jn 6:68). This "eternal life knowing" comes from observing Nature, learning Scripture (and this is far more than just reading) and conscious experience from which we learn to trust, obey and enjoy God. At this point, we enter into a vicarious relationship with Christ and a critical part of this relationship is "experiencing His pain" (1 Peter 2:19-24 where we learn to good and suffer; to repay evil with blessings; to not revile in return; and, in suffering, to not threaten, because Christ suffered for us.) This is what's behind James 1:2-4, why Paul wanted to know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings (Phil 3:10) and why in the interview Pastor Jeff shared, Dr. Mary Neal, after her heaven-experience, said there is nothing bad that happens to Christians when asked why ""bad things happen to good people."
ReplyDeleteIn Psalm 119:67, 71, the psalmist didn’t view affliction as a disaster. He saw it as a kind of corrective medicine. It was something that he needed to adjust his life. He says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray and I paid for it, but now,” he said, “I obey Your word. I’ve learned my lesson. It pays to obey.”
ReplyDeleteAnd then he says at the end, “O LORD . . . in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” You didn’t do it because You were cruel or because You were angry with me. You did it to straighten me out, to bring me back from my own evil way into Your way, to find the way of peace.
Are you in the midst of affliction? Don’t fight. Don’t argue with God. Ask Him the reason. God is afflicting you in His faithfulness. He has a reason. He’s trying to turn you back from something, to bring you out of the wrong and bring you into the right – a life of obedience to His statutes.
Another great message to refresh & carry with us daily !
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