Overwhelmed

Overwhelmed

Sunday, May 29, 2016
Jeff Lampl

The hard reality of life is that life is difficult.  Everyone suffers. . . . . 

“For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.  We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”    Philippians 1:29-30 (NLT)

God has deemed a world in which all suffer to be a world worth having created.  But why?

It seems to me that the Bible’s answer is that God allows suffering as a means of shaping us into a new kind of creature, a creature who learns to live a life that is all about God and others instead of a life that is all about self.  

This means that I must avoid pursuing a life that avoids suffering.  Simply put, gearing my efforts toward the avoidance of pain is a self-centered life.  But if we actually choose to suffer for the sake of others, to alleviate their pain, then we have entered the process of becoming a different kind of human being.   When we enter the pain of another for the sake of Christ, and for the sake of the other, we are now in fellowship not just with others, but with Christ Himself.  

You and I have been given “the privilege of  . . . suffering for Christ”.  Embracing the hard things, facing them with Christ, is our privilege, not our curse.

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