Suffering to Learn - Rejoice (Part 3)

God gets you through trials, not necessarily around trials. Many of you might have heard some inaccurate teaching growing up, saying that God is going to fix everything. And, well, He will... but it won't be fixed until after you die (they might have left out that part). The occurrences of trials, as stated in the Bible, is not a question of if, but a question of when.

God is just as active in the low points of life as He is during the high (and probably even more conceptually so, because people rarely notice God or pay heed to Him until things are going bad and we call out for help)... so much so that the Bible even instructs us to "rejoice" in our sufferings. Now, I don't naturally rejoice with hardship. It's not my first response, or my second, or third... Though I'm a fairly positive person, I'm not the smore-eating, jumping-around-the-campfire-for-Jesus type. It takes me a while, a long while - like around response seventy-two - to get me to that point of being able to rejoice.

During these times, there are a few things that have proven themselves to be my "cling to" items, to help that rejoice process:

God's purification

Suffering is always purifying. I do have to believe, and past experience has reinforced, that suffering truly is for our good (though it's hardest to believe that in the midst of it). Trials continue to raise sin to the surface so that it can be scooped out accordingly. It allows us the opportunity to investigate and judge ourselves. If EVERYTHING is taken away, is God truly... not as in a flippant, quick, un-investigated "truly", but a deep, soul-wrenching "truly"... enough for you, for me?

On the other hand, everything requires trust, and that is what God seeks. Therefore, everything is allowed or destined in hopes to greenhouse that trust. I remember going through this process, when trying to deal with if surgery was the right answer or not. I had countless "reliable professionals" all yelling at me to do different things... the surgeons told my to do surgery, the physical therapists told me to do physical therapy, and the chiropractors told me to chiropractic methods... all vouching that the other was wrong. It got the the point where I had enough information, but that wasn't enough to make a decision. Even that, required stepping out in faith, taking action, and trusting God with the results.

God's love

Suffering is really weighty. You should never deny it, but what you need is to counter-balance it. One such way is just to try and soak in and dwell on God's love. Now awareness of love is hard, especially if that love is being "tested" in any way. So, you most undoublty can never look to the present for the evidence to lead you to your conclusion, but to the past. That is where the sufferer needs to focus on what God has done in the past, both through them personally as well as through the world historically, to draw out the evidence needed for them to dwell on that love.

Though suffering is heavy, God' s love is heavier. And though the sufferer might have a hard time believing this as they struggle with self-consumption... suffering is NOT the worse thing in the world. There is something much worse. And that is not knowing God personally, not having a steadfast relationship with Him to stand on, being objects of wrath. That, indeed, is the worse thing of all.

God's grace

One I have frequently had to take in time and time again is God's continuous grace. If sufferers are much like me, you don't handle the situation of suffering very well. So, not only does the process bring up all this sin in your life, but you also can quickly get the burden of not being a "good Christian" by how you've handled the trial process itself. The beauty of God is one to bathe in... being one who, no matter how messy we are, always welcomes us back with wide arms. And as the cosmic Mr. Clean of the universe, is always able to clean us up once again.

God's finale

You may suffer greatly, but when you die and stand before God, having finished strong with no regrets... whoa... what a feeling! The simple fact is that everybody dies, but how you die is what differs. There will soon be a time when Christ will return, this world will come to an end, and suffering will be gone forever! That is why the Bible so frequently talks about hope. Hope, in of itself, is a forward looking entity. You never hope in the present, you hope for the future! And that future, the one with the large "Suffering-Free" label, is what we hope in, and in that we rejoice.