Devotional Thoughts: Suffering

Sometimes I know I’d never survive if I hadn’t given the Lord my life. Do not be mistaken! The Christian life is one of suffering. We do not belong here. This is our Hell, but our Heaven is on the way. I remind myself of this constantly. Our suffering can reveal God to others. Our brothers and sisters who are wrongly persecuted around the world understand this verse much better than we North Americans do. Church father Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” God has this unexplainable manner in which He sustains us and even gives us joy in suffering! Are you suffering? Ask for God’s power not to be crushed, ask God to sustain you through despair. God has a way of producing great moments of irony in our lives. There’s irony all over the Bible! Jesus was born in a barn. The King of the universe wasn’t treated as such. Jesus walked these roads and because He did He empowers us to make it through all the way whatever we may be facing. The only way I know how to make it through is to hand it all over to God. He takes our clay and makes beauty through suffering.