FEBRUARY 2
1 Peter 5: 10
We all experience suffering at one time or the other. Jesus told believers that they would face tribulations in life. But he didn’t stop thereWhat is your response to suffering when it occurs? Our first response to it should be to involve God in the situation. The Apostle Peter encouraged Christians who suffer with these words: ‘…after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you,’ 1 Peter 5:10. Keep in mind that the suffering we are designed to experience is temporary, transient, brief and impermanent. This is in contrast to the eternal glory that is reserved for the believer. We go through pain, trouble and distress before God steps in to bless us. The great benefit of our suffering is that it is temporary, but it produces in us character that will last throughout eternity, 2 Corinthians 4:17. Our character is shaped and strengthened in the crucible of suffering. The blessings come to us after we must have submitted to the fire of God’s disciple.
Whenever God allow believers to suffer, God’s goal is to perfect us, i.e perfect here means to equip, to adjust, and to fit together, to put into order, to mend, to make whole. God uses suffering to perfect us, chastise us, make us wiser, strengthen us, mature us, remove corruption far from us, and restore our relationship with him and the brethren. Sufferings make us more dedicated and dependent on the Lord. We are constrained to focus on Christ, and remove attention from what our human hands can do and achieve. It forces us to depend solely on Christ, and our confidence is anchored on the Blood of the Lamb. Suffering helps us to be established on the solid rock.
In the midst of whatever he permits to suffer us, God gives us the grace to help in time of need. Suffering makes us spiritually strong. As we submit to God, we receive grace needed for the moment, and the assurance that the suffering will produce a solid foundation for our spiritual growth and establishment. He gives us grace and mercy in the time of need, ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,’ Hebrew 4: 16. God expects that we should come to him in our pain, disappointments, hurts, suffering, persecution, sickness and suffering. He provides the grace and enablement to meet our needs. God’s grace is boundless, limitless, and vast; let us take full advantage of it, and allow a beautiful soul and character to emerge. The essence of suffering is to perfect us, to conform us to the image of Christ. All that happens to the child of God is ordained for his ultimate good. Whatever God
