Suffering

None of us like to suffer – we try to avoid it, but somehow suffering of some sort finds us in the end. Suffering is one of life’s greatest mysteries. One of the things that is most necessary is to find God and walk closely with Him. Only He will be able to make sense of your trials and comfort you in them. Only He is able to see you through – He is faithful.

Daniel tells us that the wise will be able to understand in the midst of trials:

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;

but the wicked shall do wickedly:

and none of the wicked shall understand;

but the wise shall understand.

Dan. 12:10

Many have tried to understand suffering and write comforting words. In the end, we must dig deep into our hearts and find the strength to live faithfully in God’s faithfulness and stand firm in the promises of His name.

Here are some of the most encouraging and wise words I have found concerning suffering:

From "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers:

"To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong;

to choose God's will even if it means suffering

is a very different thing."

Oswald Chambers

p. 223

"Notice God's unutterable waste of saints, according to the judgment of the world.  God plants His saints in the most useless places.  We say God intends me to be here because I am so useful.  Jesus never estimated His life along the line of the greatest use.  God puts His saints where they will glorify Him, and we are no judge at all of where that is." p.223

"Most of us fall and collapse at the fist grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God's purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death bed."

p. 306

"If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for you at all, they are meant to make you useful in His hands, And to enable you to understand what transpires in other souls so that you will never be surprised at what you come across." p. 310

"Suffering shows if we really have God - or just an idea."

Unknown

"Faith makes a Christian - life proves a Christian -

trial confirms a Christian - death crowns a Christian."

Unknown

"Tell me how much you know of the sufferings of your fellow man

and I will tell you how much you have loved him."

Helmit Thielke

"In every suffering there is a chisel for character."

"Pain is inevitable, misery is optional."

"There is a time coming in which your glory shall consist of the very thing which now constitutes your pain."

Unknown

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls."

— Edwin Hubbel Chapin

"Sorrow makes men sincere."

— Henry Ward Beecher

"The gem cannot be polished without friction,

nor man perfected without trials."

—Chinese Proverb

"By afflictions God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us.

When he makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let it go."

—John Powell

"As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff,

so does affliction purify virtue."

—Richard E. Burton

"I thank God for my handicaps, for through them,

I have found myself, my work and my God."

—Helen Keller

If you are suffering – don’t think that there is something wrong with you – just know that the Lord trusts the work of His Holy Spirit in you – that His plans and purposes with surely come to pass.

Phil. 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

More tomorrow on this subject

See HERE for more thoughts on suffering