1-21-15 Dealing with Suffering

                  

The Bible teaches us how to live, how to suffer, and how to die. If we will but utilize specific patterns of biblical thought control and biblical behavior regulation by the Spirit of God, we will find victory to be an absolute reality in our personal lives.  We will participate in victorious Christian living despite problems of immense human proportions.

Obedience is the password to victory and can be defined simply as "absolute submission to the Word and will of God."  In Psalm 118:8, the psalmist reminds us that “it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.”

When Paul wrote to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 1, he said that the pressure became so great that they despaired even of life, but God used those circumstances to cause them to realize their trust must be in Him, not in themselves. We see the same idea in Romans 5 when Paul is again discussing tribulation. In Romans 5:3-4, he says, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.”

The prophet Jeremiah expressed solid confidence in God when he stated,

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I de- light, saith the Lord.  (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

When we as believers are faced with a sudden or slowly approaching event that involves discomfort and suffering, we need to base our attitudes and actions on the very Word of God. The evidence of the living Savior is never more apparent than when demonstrated by the child of God in the furnace of affliction. A practical illustration of functional Christianity involves dealing with distresses by shifting our view to God’s ultimate plan for our lives.


                                                                (c) 1992 N.A.Collins
                                                         Excerpted from "To Glorify God"
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