Are You Baffled By Suffering?
Do you ever feel like you can’t catch a break – like people and circumstances are constantly raising their hands against you? This is part of what life is like sometimes. Life on earth is difficult. Sometimes, even for long periods of time, life can feel oppressive – and bring suffering. Understanding this reality can be helpful – everyone suffers, and everyone needs to learn to persevere.
Unfortunately, many people of faith are baffled when they hit difficult patches. They subtly or blatantly believe that their lives should be easier because they have faith in God. This is wrong theologically and unhelpful in practice.
Jesus’ life was difficult, and it grew more difficult as He continued in His faithful devotion to the Father. The apostle Paul’s life was also difficult. Yet, rather than being perplexed by his difficulties or feeling sorry for himself, Paul invited his spiritual son and apprentice to “join him in suffering like a good...
Are You Sending Down Deep Roots?
Most of us tend to do whatever we can to get out of the path of adversity. We will try to think our way out of a mess, look for help from others, or pray that God will just make it stop. Additionally, we all experience the constant inundation of advertisers that offers products to relieve and remove our troubles. They promise to give us access to the good life to which we are all “entitled.” If your difficulty is weight, muscle tone, sickness, finance, loneliness, depression, or erectile dysfunction – “We have a product that will take care of that for you.”
God’s ways are often very different from ours. He uses the hurdles and stubborn obstacles of life to deepen us and produce lasting fruit in our lives. Wisdom and character are grown through adversity, not through escape. There is no product that you can buy that will give you the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) or understanding of the ways of God. These are only forged...
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