All in Suffering
Do you think God has abandoned you when you are in a season of suffering in your life? Do you look to Him and cry out in anger at your pain? Does doubt come from your strife, or, even the mere endurance of hardship... or do you trust in Him all the more? There is a mystery in suffering; we wonder why God uses adversity and pain to teach us some of faith’s most valuable lessons.
Are you concerned because you are constantly at war within yourself? Does it bother you that there is a struggle going on inside you between good and evil, holy and unholy, or salvation and damnation? Well, take heart because although this conflict is the natural state of man, we have a champion who not only helps us realize the good within ourselves, but helps us to achieve it by defeating sin.
When you talk with a friend about Jesus in a public place do you speak in hushed tones? When someone asks you about Jesus in a crowded room do you whisper in their ear, or just nod you head? If so, let me tell you a couple of stories, and give you some scripture, that might change your behavior.
Where do you hide, and why? Are you afraid of failure, of displeasing God, sin, or the pain of living? Why do you feel inclined to seek out a hiding place or shelter yourself from life? Many of us hide ourselves from the world around us; while others hide from God Himself.
Many devout Christians will reach a place in their faith where they will call out to the Lord asking that they join Him in the suffering He experienced. One feels that if God breaks our bread and pours out our wine that the relationship we have with Him will grow all the closer, but something unexpected happens... it isn't God who breaks us and pours us out.