Joyful Suffering

Joyful Suffering

Scripture: Romans 8:17- Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory.

The title says joyful suffering, but how often do we rejoice when we suffer? How in the world can anyone tell you to be joyful or find pleasure in suffering; when most times suffering hurts? What kind of suffering is ever pleasurable? When do we as Christians ever say man I can’t wait to my storm comes, or I can’t wait till I become broke and penniless or even Lord send me some trials right now! Does this sound like something you would say? If it does after reading this send me an email, write me a letter, or schedule a dinner so we can meet and you can tell me how you do it! Suffering isn’t pleasant, suffering isn’t something that we want, and suffering isn’t something that God wants for us. So the question is why do we SUFFER?I can give you many answers to this question, I don’t know, because the world is evil, because we did something wrong, and whatever else the human mind can possibly try to come up with to logically explain why the Christian suffers. What I want to do is give you some biblical reasons why we suffer and what we have to do when we suffer.

The first reason that we suffer I believe is that we are to be Christ-like! People think that this means that we only have to go to church like Jesus did, know the scriptures like Jesus did, be baptized like Jesus was, and turn the other cheek if someone slaps you. Well the truth is we are, but often times we don’t do this, but suffering, temptations, and trails we don’t ask for; yet they still come. Well Jesus didn’t ask for his sufferings either! Jesus did not ask to be tempted by the devil, or to be nailed on the cross, but He did suffer those things, and what did they do? Jesus’ suffering made God proud to call him His son. God was pleased with Jesus, for accepting the suffering that was to come, and pushing through it. Also Jesus’ suffering gave him all power, and that same power we can have, but we can’t expect to share in His power and his glory, if we are not willing to suffer as well.I also believe we suffer so that we can become stronger. Let me say that we can’t keep complaining when suffering or trails come, because we miss what we were supposed to learn when we do. We spend all of our time during our storms complaining about them; we miss what we were supposed to learn. We miss what we were supposed to gain from this storm or this trail. We miss the power God was trying to give us from this storm, because we did not focus on him, but we focused on the storm. And if the truth be told that’s why most of us are still in our storms, because we are not willing to change our focus from our suffering, and put our focus on God who can bring you through it.

Stop letting your storms go to waste! If you know God can bring you out then trust in that! If you read the rest of Romans chapter 8 you’ll see that all though you suffer you become more than a conqueror.The last reason I think we suffer is so that we can learn to praise God no matter what, and that we prepare to reap the glory or the fruits of our sufferings. I often here preachers say it is easy to praise God when things are going good, but can you do it in the midst of your storms. Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verses 3-4, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope,” Paul says this not out of inexperience, but he knew great suffering and he ended up writing almost half of what we call the New Testament of God’s word.The biggest thing that I got out of the scripture above is that we should never isolate ourselves in our sufferings. Notice that in both scriptures that it says we share in his sufferings, and we also rejoice in our sufferings.

So stop suffering on your own, don’t give the devil the power to conquer you, because you want to be depressed and handle things by yourself. Get you some friends to pray with you, to fast with you, and to praise with you; not because you are suffering, but that you’re going to come out stronger because of it. Sorry this was so long, but this is speaking into my life as well.Be blessed and through Christ’s sufferings, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8.