7. THE KEY OF SUFFERING AND HARDSHIP

Discipline in the kingdom – staying on the path

This key may be uncomfortable for us to accept as a vital part of our experience of living in God’s kingdom. However, without the willingness to accept, embrace, and rejoice in our suffering, there are lessons we may never learn about fully participating in the glory of life in God’s kingdom. These are lessons we can only learn through submission and obedience. Jesus is our model and mentor.

“While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”

Hebrews 5:7-8 NLT

What we learn through hardship and suffering relate to our character as God’s children and brothers and sisters of Jesus who is God’s firstborn in His family.

A. Suffering teaches us many lessons; patience, trust, hope in God’s promises, and an eager anticipation for the glory of our future.

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT

B. Hardships and suffering transform our character.

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

James 1:2-4 NLT

C. Hardship is God’s mark of sonship and God’s way of training us to be true sons.

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.”

Hebrews 12:7-8 NIV

D. Suffering changes our attitude to sin.

“So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.”

1 Peter 4:1 NLT

E. Hardships and suffering change our focus and lead to holiness.

“For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness.”

Hebrews 12:10 NLT

F. God’s disciple through suffering enables us to live righteously.

” No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

Hebrews 12:11 NIV

8. THE KEY OF PRAYER

Communication with the Father

Although we may not recognise prayer as an important key to God’s resources in the kingdom, we cut ourselves off from all that God has provided for us when we don’t pray.

There is a process in prayer that, first of all, embraces all the great truths of our faith. This process opens the door to fellowship with the Father.

A. Without the cross, we are separated from God and barred from approaching Him.

“And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place.”

Hebrews 10:19-20 NLT

B. Without Jesus, we have no mediator between us and God to represent us and plead our cause with the Father.

“My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.”

1 John 2:1 NLT

C. Without the Holy Spirit, we have no one to interpret our groans and help us to pray according to the Father’s will.

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

Romans 8:26-27 NLT

D. Together with the key of faith, prayer cultivates our intimacy with the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Prayer is not about changing our circumstances or getting what we want. Prayer is about growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer is about learning and leaning on God’s promises that enable us to participate in the divine nature.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT

E. Prayer connects us to God’s promises. Through His promises, God has provided everything for human life on this planet and spiritual life in His kingdom.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

2 Peter 1:3-4 NIV

F. Prayer leads us to worship, the highest form of prayer. We approach the Father, we call on His name, we engage Him for ourselves and others but all our efforts must lead us to gaze on Him, to contemplate His greatness and goodness since, through these, we receive grace to be transformed into the image of Jesus.

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV