Skip to main content

Blessed Suffering


              How can suffering be blessed?  There is one and only one way.  It is when you suffer while you love God.  In fact, Peter tell us that we are called to obtain the blessing because we do not revile when we are reviled.  Peter seems to assume that each one of us will have opportunities to follow Christ in the way of suffering unjustly.  Here are a few of Peter’s thoughts on the subject of blessed suffering: Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.  Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing….. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?  But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed (I Peter 3:8-9; 13-14).
              Laura Story wrote the words to the song: Blessings after her husband was diagnosed with cancer, and she was challenged by her sister to consider the blessings of her tears.  Why would her sister say something like that to her?  Perhaps she had known the blessings (like this beautiful best-selling song) that awaited Laura if she looked to God as loving her rather than seeing God as someone in power she had to convince to do what she thought was right!  This song describes what Peter longs for all Christians to understand about our lives.  The good and the bad circumstances of life are equally filled with blessings, though in Peter’s opinion, it seems more blessings are produced by the bad circumstances.  She wrote what we all feel:  

We pray for blessings. We pray for peace. Comfort for family, protection while we sleep. We pray for healing, for prosperity. We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering. All the while, You hear each spoken need. Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things.
'Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

 Laura seems to have learned the lesson that Peter wants us all to know.  He wants all Christians to look for the blessings from the hardships that we face.  The blessings are there.  We just have to learn how to look for them.  It’s not natural to see blessings in harsh circumstances.  Our natural instincts are to cry for mercy, to demand that God change our circumstances.  We rail against God rather than throw ourselves at His mercy and open our eyes to where He supplies mercy.  Where are the hidden blessings from a God who offers deep and abiding love in the midst of allowing us to face harsh realities? Is the blessing believing in the love of God in spite of the difficulties of this life?  What other blessings can be found?  Spiritual growth, humility, longsuffering…need I list more?  Don’t miss your blessings as you suffer.


Copyright © 2016.  Deborah R Newman.  All Rights Reserved.  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fifth Monday in Lent through Palm Sunday

Fifth Monday in Lent: Righteousness Needed Jesus is all about bringing us righteousness yet we are too worldly focused to think we have much of a need for righteousness. Most of us think we need healing or exciting miracles. We might try to get a little righteousness by going to church on Sunday and giving some spare change to a beggar. God sees the bigger picture and knows that there is nothing which we are more bankrupt than righteousness. He sees that we are totally incapable of getting the righteousness we need through our own actions, so He sent Jesus to give us His righteousness through His sacrificial work on the cross. Lent is a season of repentance and preparation for the Easter celebration. No matter how sacrificial your Lenten fast, it could never be enough to earn your righteousness. I have been practicing Lent for   years, and every year at the end of my fast I come face to face with how far I am from righteousness. Some of the first recorded words of Jesus in th
Post a Comment
Read more

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8).   I decided through tears that I would go on
2 comments
Read more

The Troubled Christian Life

              When I surrendered my vocation to God back when I was seventeen-years-old, He called me to a life of walking through the most broken realities that people face in a first-world country.  The verse that led me to this life was 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,   who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God .  I began counseling others at the ripe age of 23.  I looked like I could have still been in high school, and the patients given to me rightly had their doubts.  I had my doubts too.  I knew that I didn’t have the wisdom to counseling people double my age.  I didn’t have a lot of experience of deep wounds either so I couldn’t talk to them from my own experiences of deep brokenness.  I was only helpful to them because I relied totally on the word of God and the presence of the Holy Spirit
Post a Comment
Read more