I was asked why we have to suffer. I hesitated for most of the day before offering what I consider a tidbit of an answer. I didn’t want to say anything that would make my friend feel worse, or God-forbid, guilty. I have suffered many times throughout my life. I know suffering is the fruit of a myriad of seeds that have been sown. Seeds of our choices, decisions others have made that affect us…the reasons are endless.
But I know that when joy and blessing seems afar off, so far that you can’t even fathom that it will ever exist for you, the consolation is that God is watching and He does care. I remember wondering why He would allow me to suffer so much and for so long. But in retrospect I find that He was positioning me on the potter’s wheel. I needed Him to make me over because I was a broken mess. I had to patiently endure the squeezing and reshaping, and when I thought I was done, I met the fiery furnace.
The whole process of suffering seemed so callous and uncaring of God because it was painful for me. But He made me a vessel anxious to encourage others who are in the beginning phase or going through the process akin to mine. It is possible to float when you’re head under inhaling an ocean of water. You can live when you’re in the midst of the flames.
We suffer so much, but the scriptures call it a light affliction. What appears endless, the scriptures say that it is but for a moment. It doesn't make natural sense but the spiritual sense is that it will create for us a far more exceeding, and eternal weight of Glory. How excellent it is to look like, talk like, be like someone else—the One who is regal—Jesus Christ. As we endure the fellowship of His suffering, we come out likened to pure gold because we hid ourselves in Christ Jesus during the process with prayer and praise.
We can rest in God, trust in, and love God enough to allow Him to take us on what appears to be a perilous journey. That journey with Him will always reveal self to self, but it also yields a greater dimension of anointing. Count it wonderful to toss all that we are into God's love and care, in faith that He will sustain us while being transformed into the image and likeness of Christ.
2Corinthians 4:17--For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
by Christine Brooks Martin, Author
"Christine's Short-Shorts"
"Talk to God with Affirmations of Faith"
"Pray What God Says"
Areli MediaWorks 2011
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