Suffering

 

I found this nail while sweeping and it made me think of the woman sweeping who found her lost coin and rejoiced. 

We tend to avoid, hide, or run away from suffering and those are all natural feelings, but rejoicing in the midst of suffering is our supernatural response that only comes from knowing the One who is familiar with sorrows and acquainted with grief. Suffering always leads us closer to Jesus if we do not lose our focus. I could have just scooped up that nail and put it my pocket and continued sweeping, but I knew the Lord wanted me to pause and ponder upon His love and suffering. The cross, the nails, the beatings, the rejection and mocking. If we ever doubt His love for us, may we set our eyes on the cross and the nails and those doubts will vanish away. 

Often times joy and compassion come in the strange, yet beautiful package of suffering. Suffering is not pleasant, but when we dwell in Christ, we experience measures of His comfort and love that really cannot be experienced outside of suffering. I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death and I testify that even in that dark place, He is very present and forever faithful. He is the fourth man in the fire, the One unafraid to touch the leper, He is the Father running TO the prodigal to embrace and welcome him back home. There is a beautiful exchange of His compassion when others go through trials and we can comfort them with that same comfort we have experienced. What a beautiful mystery that this world will never understand, we can rejoice in our sufferings as we become more and more like Him through the sufferings. 

In God’s kingdom, suffering and pain are never wasted. He brings beauty from ashes, makes crooked places straight, and turns things for good that the enemy intended for evil. That’s our God! We can trust Him! 

In the middle of suffering, the enemy will often attack with the lie that God does not see us or care about us. We rebuke and kill those lies with the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God

and the truth of who our God is... He is Immanuel, God with us and He is El Roi, the God who sees us. He tells us to cast our cares upon Him for He cares for us! When afflictions, trials, and sufferings come, we refuse the lies, bitterness, and self pity as we cling to Jesus and His goodness and faithfulness. We can certainly trust the One with nail scarred hands and feet in our times of suffering. He sees, He hears, He cares, He knows. 

Oh Jesus, teach us not only to suffer well, but to rejoice in the midst of suffering. You are always worthy of our praise, no matter what circumstance is thrown at us in this life. We will not lose our joy in the midst of our suffering because we will keep our eyes on You and Your joy is our strength! Like the woman who rejoiced over finding her lost coin, may we also rejoice as we remember Your sufferings and love for us. For the joy set before You, You endured the cross! Thank you Jesus, there’s no need to fear or be discouraged because You walk with us, whether through fields of joy or the dark valleys of suffering, You are faithful and we will rejoice! 

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.”

1 Peter 4:12-16

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:1-5