Post by Cindy on Aug 31, 2016 12:04:26 GMT -5
Trials, Suffering, Hardship, Pain, Illness, Persecution...we often hear people who are going through these kind of things ask, "Where is God in all of this?" Many Pastors have let us down in not preaching the whole gospel, and because of that, many don't know the answer to that question. They don't understand that suffering is not an option for Christians, it's a must in this world. When Paul and Barnabas went out on their first missionary trip, they preached the gospel and many were saved. The very next thing we're told is that they strengthened them and encouraged them to remain true to the faith. In Acts 14:22 it says they: “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.” Notice that the people who had come to faith in Christ were now called "disciples". They were considered disciples because once they were saved, their education began in earnest and they were taught God's Word. It was God's Word that strengthened and encouraged them so they would be able to remain true to the faith they now had. They were told straight out that they would go through many hardships before they would be able to enter God's Kingdom. They were told this was normal and not something to fear or run away from. They were shown examples of this all through God's Word and had the present example of Paul himself who had just recently been stoned and left for dead!
The examples they were shown of others who went through hardships showed them that this was nothing new for those who believed and obeyed the Lord. We can go back to Abraham or Moses, and we've all heard about Job. We can look at the prophets; not one of them escaped this life without a great deal of hardship and suffering. In fact, I can't think of a single person in the OT who didn't go through severe trials. Look at all David went through between the time God told him that he was to be the King, and the time he was actually crowned. Nor did the hardships stop then, for he had just as many afterward. In the NT we're shown what John the Baptist went through, what Mary and Joseph went through, even Simeon and Anna the prophets who spoke to Mary when she brought Jesus to the temple. We know what our Lord Himself went through while He was here. (although I really doubt if we fully know or realize just how horrible it was for Him) After Him, the disciples go through all kinds of hardships, including pain and illness.
Therefore, to even consider for a moment that we won't have to go through anything isn't even logical. Yet false teachers are constantly telling believers that going through hard times means a lack of faith on their part! How ridiculous can you get? Jesus Himself tells us: ““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”” (John 16:33) What were "these things" that He had told them about? John 16:1–3 starts by telling them of the hardships and persecution they will have. Then later He again tells them He will die but will rise from the dead. I love how He explains this as it also applies to us: “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:21–22) This is how Jesus wants us to view our hardships and suffering. We don't experience them due to lack of faith but because we DO have faith! We will go through much in this life, but sooner than we think, a time will come when we will be filled with joy and that joy will never end. That time will come when we finally enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of our God - where our real Home is. There are no tears or suffering there, only joy that will never end.
These trials are not to punish us but to refine our faith. Peter explains it this way: “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:7) So trials, hardships, suffering, pain and illness, etc. all refine our faith and also prove beyond any doubt that we are indeed children of God Almighty! Now that's something to rejoice about! We can see by this and by a tremendous number of scriptures all through God's Word that suffering is inevitable for all who belong to the Lord. It's like the old saying, "No cross, No crown."
A big part of our problem today is that we don't expect to suffer. Instead we're always taken by surprise. Unless we've become so depressed that we don't expect anything else and don't understand the reason for it. Neither responses are healthy or true, and neither is the way the Lord tells us to respond to hardship. We're to expect it and accept it, knowing that our Father loves us and will use every bit of it for our ultimate good, in other words to make us more like Christ. To be more like Christ is what all who have been born again want anyway, isn't it? Therefore, when hardship inevitably comes our way, in whatever form it takes, we can rejoice because the fact that we persevere through it confirms that we are God's children and that He is working in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
The health and prosperity teachers today (Word of Faith teachers) try to twist God's Word to make it appear that God doesn't want us to suffer and that suffering is "bad". They try to make it sound as though God is mean and nasty if He allows us to suffer. After all, they say, no human parent would allow their child to suffer. Again though, none of that is true. As for human parents, we often have to allow our children to suffer. They suffer when we insist they have shots to prevent them from getting sick or a shot to make them well. They suffer when we tell them they can't do something they want to do because it's bad for them, or when we insist they do something they don't want to do. We let them suffer when they're learning to deal with other children who aren't treating them the way they want to be treated, because we know that if we constantly intervene and take care of things for them, they'll never learn to handle conflict for themselves. I could continue on that line of thought, but I'm sure we can all see how we do allow our children to suffer at times, even though it hurts us to do so. As our Father, God allows us to suffer too, and that doesn't make Him mean or nasty anymore than we are when we have to allow our children to suffer. Instead it shows that He is a good Father. We often also hear that His ways are not our ways. I think one reason that's true is because He has an entirely different view of this life than we do, and an entirely different view of death as well. While we tend to look at this life as though it's all there is, He knows that it's not the whole picture. People today flock to the false teachers because they don't want to suffer, so they "believe" what these teachers are telling them. It's the normal reaction of our sin nature to do that. Look back at your Bible and you'll see people doing that all through the Old and New Testaments. In the New Testament, it's one of the things Paul and the other apostles had to deal with. Read Jeremiah 14:13–16 to see what God has to say about this. Or Ezekiel 13:10-16, Jeremiah 8:11, Jeremiah 23:17, or 1 Tim 3:1-2 etc. We need to remember what God said: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” There are no if's or but's about it. No excuses or exemptions. The Holy Spirit used the word "must" for a reason. Finally though we also need to remember all that we know about our God: that He is love and truth, that He has compassion for us and does not treat us as our sins deserve, and that He loves us and will always keep His promises to us. We will be conformed to the image of Christ. (Romans 8:29–30; 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18/ Phil 3:21; ) That is as sure as the fact that we "must" go through hardships.
The examples they were shown of others who went through hardships showed them that this was nothing new for those who believed and obeyed the Lord. We can go back to Abraham or Moses, and we've all heard about Job. We can look at the prophets; not one of them escaped this life without a great deal of hardship and suffering. In fact, I can't think of a single person in the OT who didn't go through severe trials. Look at all David went through between the time God told him that he was to be the King, and the time he was actually crowned. Nor did the hardships stop then, for he had just as many afterward. In the NT we're shown what John the Baptist went through, what Mary and Joseph went through, even Simeon and Anna the prophets who spoke to Mary when she brought Jesus to the temple. We know what our Lord Himself went through while He was here. (although I really doubt if we fully know or realize just how horrible it was for Him) After Him, the disciples go through all kinds of hardships, including pain and illness.
Therefore, to even consider for a moment that we won't have to go through anything isn't even logical. Yet false teachers are constantly telling believers that going through hard times means a lack of faith on their part! How ridiculous can you get? Jesus Himself tells us: ““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”” (John 16:33) What were "these things" that He had told them about? John 16:1–3 starts by telling them of the hardships and persecution they will have. Then later He again tells them He will die but will rise from the dead. I love how He explains this as it also applies to us: “A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:21–22) This is how Jesus wants us to view our hardships and suffering. We don't experience them due to lack of faith but because we DO have faith! We will go through much in this life, but sooner than we think, a time will come when we will be filled with joy and that joy will never end. That time will come when we finally enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of our God - where our real Home is. There are no tears or suffering there, only joy that will never end.
These trials are not to punish us but to refine our faith. Peter explains it this way: “These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:7) So trials, hardships, suffering, pain and illness, etc. all refine our faith and also prove beyond any doubt that we are indeed children of God Almighty! Now that's something to rejoice about! We can see by this and by a tremendous number of scriptures all through God's Word that suffering is inevitable for all who belong to the Lord. It's like the old saying, "No cross, No crown."
A big part of our problem today is that we don't expect to suffer. Instead we're always taken by surprise. Unless we've become so depressed that we don't expect anything else and don't understand the reason for it. Neither responses are healthy or true, and neither is the way the Lord tells us to respond to hardship. We're to expect it and accept it, knowing that our Father loves us and will use every bit of it for our ultimate good, in other words to make us more like Christ. To be more like Christ is what all who have been born again want anyway, isn't it? Therefore, when hardship inevitably comes our way, in whatever form it takes, we can rejoice because the fact that we persevere through it confirms that we are God's children and that He is working in our lives to make us more like Jesus.
The health and prosperity teachers today (Word of Faith teachers) try to twist God's Word to make it appear that God doesn't want us to suffer and that suffering is "bad". They try to make it sound as though God is mean and nasty if He allows us to suffer. After all, they say, no human parent would allow their child to suffer. Again though, none of that is true. As for human parents, we often have to allow our children to suffer. They suffer when we insist they have shots to prevent them from getting sick or a shot to make them well. They suffer when we tell them they can't do something they want to do because it's bad for them, or when we insist they do something they don't want to do. We let them suffer when they're learning to deal with other children who aren't treating them the way they want to be treated, because we know that if we constantly intervene and take care of things for them, they'll never learn to handle conflict for themselves. I could continue on that line of thought, but I'm sure we can all see how we do allow our children to suffer at times, even though it hurts us to do so. As our Father, God allows us to suffer too, and that doesn't make Him mean or nasty anymore than we are when we have to allow our children to suffer. Instead it shows that He is a good Father. We often also hear that His ways are not our ways. I think one reason that's true is because He has an entirely different view of this life than we do, and an entirely different view of death as well. While we tend to look at this life as though it's all there is, He knows that it's not the whole picture. People today flock to the false teachers because they don't want to suffer, so they "believe" what these teachers are telling them. It's the normal reaction of our sin nature to do that. Look back at your Bible and you'll see people doing that all through the Old and New Testaments. In the New Testament, it's one of the things Paul and the other apostles had to deal with. Read Jeremiah 14:13–16 to see what God has to say about this. Or Ezekiel 13:10-16, Jeremiah 8:11, Jeremiah 23:17, or 1 Tim 3:1-2 etc. We need to remember what God said: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” There are no if's or but's about it. No excuses or exemptions. The Holy Spirit used the word "must" for a reason. Finally though we also need to remember all that we know about our God: that He is love and truth, that He has compassion for us and does not treat us as our sins deserve, and that He loves us and will always keep His promises to us. We will be conformed to the image of Christ. (Romans 8:29–30; 1 Cor 15:49; 2 Cor 3:18/ Phil 3:21; ) That is as sure as the fact that we "must" go through hardships.
!!
