EMBRACE SUFFERING
Hebrews 12:7 NIV
[7] “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”
Really! Who wants this stone in the foundation of life? We want lives free from hardship, not lives that are invaded by problems and difficulties!
We do everything possible to make life easy and try to dodge things that are unpleasant or difficult. When we do wrong, we try to cover it up. We complain about the consequences. We blame God or the devil for what we have done. We shrug off responsibilities. We cultivate a “victim mentality” to protect ourselves from having to come clean. We run, dodge, hide, or whatever it takes to escape from our own stupidity.
God’s way of shaping us for life in His eternal kingdom is not to shield us from hardships but to use them to chip away everything that does not look like Jesus. He is determined to restore the image of His Son in us. He wants a family of sons and daughters exactly like Jesus. To do that, He must follow the blueprint and remove through discipline, suffering, and the ministry of His Spirit and the Word, every thing foreign to His model.
Romans 8:29 NLT
[29] “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”
Cushy and comfortable lives free from tests and trials never make people of sterling character. As a good Father, God knows that “overindulgence”, as Dr Phil said, “is the worst form of child abuse.”
What we think is punishment, is really discipline. Punishment focuses on what what we did wrong. Discipline fixes wrongdoing and guides us on the right way.
As a good Father, God works, in our hardships, to teach us the two great requisites of sons and daughters… submission and obedience. Don’t think that Jesus was excluded from the training. He was not exempt from the suffering that produces a true son. Unlike us, He never sinned, but He had to learn to be a son just as we do.
Hebrews 2:10 NIV
[10] “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.”
Hebrews 5:7-9 NIV
[7] “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. [8] Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered [9] and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…”
Do you get the picture? Jesus had to learn submission and obedience, not by trial and error as we do, but by submitting to and obeying the Father perfectly and always. If we are to be replicas of Jesus as God planned, we must also learn submission and obedience through suffering. There is no other way.
God requires holiness, utter separation from sin. Jesus made us holy through His own blood but we must confirm in us what He has made us to be. Since our greatest battle is to live by the Spirit and not to give in to our sinful desires, God allows us to face and fight this war through His grace so that we are fitted to live in His eternal kingdom. There is no place for rebels in His heaven.
Revelation 22:14-15 NLT
[14] “Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. [15] Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.”
The Apostle Paul, to whom God gave the responsibility to suffer with Jesus as a model for us, shows us how to respond to the hardships God allows in our lives.
Paul was in danger of becoming proud because of the out-of-body revelations God gave him. So…
2 Corinthians 12:5, 7 NLT
[5] “That experience is worth boasting about, but I’m not going to do it. I will boast only about my weaknesses…
[7]…I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.”
What was the nature of Paul’s suffering? A thorn in his flesh, the fiery darts of Satan, poking him in the places where his flesh could respond in anger and retaliation! O, how Paul realised, in his battle to overcome his fleshly reactions, how weak he was.
Romans 7:15, 18 NLT
[15] “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate…
[18] And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t.”
So, in desperation Paul wanted to escape the discipline.
2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NLT
[8] “Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. [9] Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
Paul had to take a new path. Instead of resisting the troubles as enemies, he had to embrace them as friends! Instead of trying to dodge the fiery darts, he had to receive and hug them as precious gifts! If he allowed the arrows to pierce his soul, he would have become bitter. To accept and rejoice in his suffering was the only way to neutralise the poison the enemy desired to inject into his soul.
“So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. [10] That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Insults, hardships, persecutions, troubles…fiery arrows from every direction…designed to make him angry, resentful, vengeful if he gave in to his fleshly desires!
Paul assured us that overwhelming victory is ours if we treat our hardships as precious gifts from the Lord to train us to be holy.