GODSmessenger
Community Member
Member # 4198
|
posted
GOD'S PURPOSE FOR OUR SUFFERING 29 December, 2004
In the Bible, Jesus sadly asked, "...when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8b; KJV) In His Divine Wisdom, He knew that very few self-professed Christians would truly choose the Road to Life (see Matthew 7: 13-14, which was prophesied even though Christianity is the world's largest religion today). This is because "Christians" offer to our LORD only the claiming of His Name as Savior, church attendance, paltry weekly donations to the collection plate, & perhaps membership in some committees as their evidence of devotion to Him. None of this means anything to the One known as "the Man of sorrows, and well acquainted with grief". He did not endure rejection, affliction, slander, & brutal crucifixion just so we could attend church once a week & sing some hymns. Instead, we are called to pick up our crosses & follow Him, to drink of the same cup as He did, & be baptized with His Baptism. His Life & the lives of His apostles bore no resemblance to the "Christians" in the United States today, who -- apart from church attendance & claiming they are Christians -- are virtually indistinguishable from the nonbelievers' lifestyles. He calls for a complete transformation through Spiritual Growth, becoming more like Him & less like the world. Many self-professed Christians will never progress beyond the superficial level of "churchianity" because they love their own particular denominational doctrines & materialistic lifestyles too much to give "self" entirely to Christ (forgetting how He suffered & gave Himself entirely to us).
The who do hear His Indwelling Spirit's Call & choose to obey are soon disheartened by the many trials & tribulations involved in walking His narrow Road to Life. This is completely understandable, especially when the trials are many in number, severe in nature, & no end to them appears to be forthcoming. After all, if Christ's Path was easy, then most of us would be Spiritually Transformed in His Image & this world would be a much different place. However, many give up in despair, losing sight of hope in our LORD, wrongly believing they are being "punished," or doubting His Existence completely. Although these dark times are agonizing & difficult to endure, we need to press closer to our LORD in prayer & read all the examples of hardships that our LORD, Himself, & His chosen people endured (e.g., Job is a classic example). Remember, the servant is not greater than the Master -- if our LORD endured injustice, ingratitude, undeserved cruelty, rejection, & even feelings of having been abandoned by GOD while on the cross (because He had served GOD flawlessly, faithfully, & without sin ... a claim none of us can make), then why should we expect an easier path? If we are to become one with Him, then we must walk His Path & become Spiritually Transformed into His Divine Nature ("He must increase, but I must decrease" [John 3:30; KJV]). To help us through these times, we must study the lives of our LORD, Job, Joseph, Paul, Jeremiah, & GOD'S other servants who suffered greatly as His representatives.
So why must we suffer multiple & prolonged heartaches? GOD does this for several reasons, & all are for our benefit. First, we must remember that He does this only for His chosen ones for whom He has great plans & great blessings -- if He had no use for us or didn't value us, then He wouldn't waste His Time or Effort with us. In order to eliminate our attachment to this earthly realm & prepare us for our Calling & Blessings, He must transform us so we can use them wisely & reverently. Granting us His great Blessings now without the proper Spiritual Maturity would be as wise as letting a child have a Corvette simply because he wants it. So let's keep that in mind during our darkest trials. Therefore, the purpose of our tribulations is to remove our human imperfections, refine us as flawless diamonds, & create for Himself true representatives who will reflect Him to the world.
Take Joseph, for example, who was destined to save both the Egyptians & the Israelites from years of severe famine. He had to first be corrected by GOD over many years in order to create that great leader from the boy who was greatly spoiled by his father, favored openly over his older brothers, & was prone to bragging about his prophetic dreams regarding his siblings paying homage to him (which even angered his doting father at one point). No one likes a "show off," & the Bible has provided several tragic examples about the error of parents favoring one child over another (had Jacob not so blatantly favored Joseph over his other sons, they might not have been maddened with hatred & sold him into slavery in the first place. Joseph's bragging also aggravated the problems leading up to his brothers' actions, especially when they weren't of high quality character to begin with. But the Bible clearly demonstrates how GOD can bring good from our evil, selfish actions). So imperfections & immaturities had to be removed from Joseph's character before GOD could institute His Great Plan & Blessings for him & his entire family. Also, because Joseph saw GOD turn his evil situation into one of unimaginable power & good, he was able to love & forgive the brothers who had betrayed him. Only the emergence from the dark night of the soul enables us to rise above earthly situations & human reactions to GOD'S holier level & forgive those who have wronged us, for worldly events & others' actions become less important when we've been personally blessed by Divine Love & the understanding of GOD'S Master Plan behind all that has happened to us. Jesus understood His crucifiers' actions as stemming from ignorance & forgave them even in His dying agony -- that's what Divine Love from GOD'S transformation can achieve.
Also, GOD puts us through trials to prove to us that He can keep us in Him when we fear that certain losses or hardships would destroy our faith in Him. It is possible that Job's sufferings came upon him because he secretly feared he would not be devoted to GOD if his many blessings were removed. This is revealed by Job's own words, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me" (Job 3:25; KJV). Many of us fear we might turn against GOD if something very important to us was removed from our lives or if great suffering was inflicted upon us. By doing this, GOD proves to us that we can trust Him & that nothing in this world can ever pluck us from His Loving Grasp. By the time we emerge from these trials, our faith is stronger, our Blessings are usually greater, & we realize we never have to be afraid of anything again. No, it is NOT easy, & we may feel confused & even angry at Him many times -- He understands that. But, when it's over, we are much stronger in Him than we ever thought possible, & we learn an important lesson: our dread/fear is always far worse than the actual object of our dread/ fear. Once again, the outcome is Spiritual Maturity, a closer relationship with GOD, less attachment to the world, & a reduction in our undesirable earthly flaws in our character & perception.
Finally (as hard as it is to imagine now), we must remember that our earthly lives will seem like a brief second in comparison to our Eternal Lives in our Father's Kingdom. All the earthly desires, financial gains, & what others think of us will be totally unimportant at that time in our real Lives with GOD. Think back to early childhood about a toy you just HAD to have -- so much so that you believed your world would end if you could not obtain it. How important is that toy to you NOW in your adult life??? Everything in this world will have the same insignificance when we cross over to Eternity, & it is so tragic how many people won't realize that until it's too late.
So be patient in your painful trials & don't regard them as "punishments". Our LORD is perfecting us & maturing us in our Spiritual Identities, & trials do n-o-t last forever -- whatever you're experiencing right now, GOD w-i-l-l bring it to an end. In the meantime, ask Him to show you what He wants you to learn from your current situation (if we learn His Lesson, the trial will be shortened) & review the Bible to remind yourself that none of His valued representatives were popular or led charmed lives of ease & wealth. Also, never hesitate to ask other Christians to stand with you & pray for you during difficult times. Remember this: the more prolonged & difficult your trials, the more GOD values you, & the greater the Blessings that will ultimately come your way afterward if you stay faithful to Him. The true Christian life was never meant to be easy, painless, or limited to mere church attendance as our only responsibility to the One who loved us & gave Himself for us.
Always In Our LORD'S Service:
GOD'S Messenger Make A Difference Ministries
-------------------- Yours In Our LORD'S Service:
GOD'S Messenger Make A Difference Ministries
Posts: 19 | From: California | Registered: Dec 2004
| IP: Logged |
|