Suffering

I have just been blown away the last few weeks. God is so real and so present! I feel like He has had me re-thinking so many things I knew. What I have found incredible is how many times He has confirmed what He was just speaking to me through the next sermon I listened too. Truly, what an incredible God we serve, that He can bring something before us (months/years after it was created) and have it be especially poignant to our situation.

For example, just a few days after writing my last post, our pastor gave his sermon about knowing the Will of God. So much of what he said was exactly what I was thinking about as I wrote my post! So much of it was the same that I was truly shocked. (As soon as they upload the sermon, I'll try to post it here.)

And that has just consistently been the case. I've been thinking something over and then listen to a sermon and that just happens to be the subject. Or I've had a great conversation with a friend and then the next sermon is about that topic. It's crazy...crazy awesome!! I just love that. I love how God makes Himself real to us.

Anyway, one of the things I really feel that God has been showing me, is that suffering can be a true blessing! One of the sermons I listened to mentioned Philippians 1:29 and it really got me thinking. Here it is in NKJV:

"For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake."

The context of the scripture is on persecution and similar forms of suffering, but I truly feel like God has shown me that my own form of suffering could be a gift straight from Him. How can I believe that? Well, what I have found over the years, and especially the last few months, is that suffering can either drive us to Christ, or away from Christ. If suffering causes us to pursue Christ more sincerely, then I think we should look on that suffering as a true blessing.

It is so easy to get caught up in this world. To worry about work, or kids, or having a nice car/home. It's so easy to just think about the temporary and completely forget our actual purpose in being here! Our purpose isn't to get married, have children, have a nice home, have lots of adventures....No! That is not our purpose. Our sole purpose on this earth is to glorify the only thing deserving of glory, Christ the Savior. And we are called to glorify Him through our joy and through our pain. And all of those good things I mentioned, though not our purpose, are given to us from a Good God who loves us.

So if I can think that God gives us those good things as a blessing, shouldn't it follow that He can give us difficult things as a blessing too? Honestly, that's how I feel right now. I feel so incredibly blessed to be sick. It's crazy, and I don't know how to explain it, but my joy is fuller, and my peace is greater. And I know that is completely because God has shown Himself in this time. It is so much harder for us to go to God when we feel like we have everything put together in our lives. It is in the pain and suffering that we realize more fully how much we require God. And I feel so incredibly grateful to be in this place of need. To not have it all figured out. To be in a place where the only thing I can truly rely on is Christ. There is nothing I can do to change some of my physical conditions. God alone can do that miracle. I feel so completely overwhelmed with His blessings. I never thought I'd look on this season as blessed, but I do, I absolutely do.