Suffering

The last few weeks there has been a topic on my mind. I heard Paul Washer speak in Texas in Nov. about suffering for Christ. Do I suffer for Christ, do I teach my children to do it? There are different ways to “suffer”. There is persecution. American Christians may soon join the ranks of Christians in other countries in physically suffering for choosing to live uncompromisingly for Jesus. Do we prepare our children for that possibility?

There is suffering in the sense of taking up our cross daily to follow Him. Take up your cross, die to self, let your mind be transformed from what the world calls right- or maybe what you call right. What if you have your heart set on something, but He has a different plan? Do you push and prod to try to change it? Do you fold your arms and refuse to change yourself? Or do you suffer through it because His ways are always best?

I don’t believe we should walk around dreary and oppressed. I don’t believe being a Christian is an instant prescription for permanently wearing sack cloth and mourning. I don’t think fun is secular. But I’m learning that I often need to suffer through something that isn’t going the way I would think best. From that situation may come character I didn’t have beforehand. It may produce attributes in me that I don’t naturally possess.

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing [this], that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have [her] perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:2-4


Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Phil 4:11-13

It can be difficult to have joy and praise a God who put us in a position we did not hope for. Have I learned to put aside my own ambitions when they don’t align with Scripture- and to rejoice while doing it?

My answer to these questions is, “no”. I have not learned to do these things. I would be embarrassed to even mention MY “sufferings” in comparison to what many true believers have and are going through. But, as miniscule as they are, I still struggle with them. I want my will to be done. For me, even a brief moment of suffering through something with joy is a great victory. It seems to be an important way the Lord works on His people. My strategy, as it probably is with most, is to find the quickest and easiest way to save ourselves from anything difficult that is contrary to my desires. So, instead of trying to somehow go around difficulties, I will be asking the Lord to help me go through them when it is His will.

If an unwanted situation never resolves, if God never “saves” me from it until His return, I’ll try remember words from a man who went through terrible things:

And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21