Blessings In Suffering

In asking for topics women wanted to study in our summer Ladies class, one of the topics was God's reasons for suffering. I spent hours and hours reading and trying to decide how to address that topic. Some of the smartest philosophers in the world can't really answer the questions involved in suffering and whether it is from God or from Satan. If it is from Satan then why does God allow it? I even came across a new thought I had never heard of called Open Theism which suggest the future has not happened, so God does not know the future. I decided that everyone has their own conclusions and that the bottom line we pretty much have to work out the how's and why's in our own minds and for me it comes down to trust. Either I trust God is in control or not. Then the question will come up "how can a good God allow such bad things to happen and not intervene". Again, either I just trust His reasons or I don't. I choose to trust....atheists choose not to.

So I decided that the best course of action for this class was to focus on the benefits that come from suffering based on my experience. Although I did get some of the ideas from Joni Eareckson Tada and Randy Alcorn. I can't list all the verses I referenced because of limited space here, but if you would like the entire document you can email me at lynnleaming@comcast.net, and I would be glad to send it to you.

BENEFITS TO SUFFERING

1. Makes Me Participate With Jesus

Philippians 3:10-I

want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

2.

Makes Me More Like Jesus

2 Corinthians 4:8-10-We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

3. Brings Me Into His Word/Teaches Me Obedience

Psalm 119:67-Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

Psalm 119:71-It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees

4. Refines Me

Isaiah 48:10-See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

5. Humbles Me

Psalm 51:16-17-You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart.

6. Increases My Patience

Romans 12:12-Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. You, God, will not despise.

7. Teaches Me to Rejoice in God’s Provision

Psalm 68:19-Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

Isaiah 49:13-Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

8.Bolsters My Confidence In Prayer

Psalm 22:24-For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

9.Develops My Prayer Life

Psalm 10:17-You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.

Psalm 72:12-For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.

10. Increases My Dependence On God

Psalm 119:50-My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

2 Corinthians 12:9-But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

11. Teaches Me Strength

Joel 3:10-Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

2 Corinthians 12:10-That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

12. Helps Me Look Forward to Heaven

Romans 8:18-I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

2 Corinthians 4:17-For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

2 Timothy 2:12-If we endure, we will also reign with him.

13.Allows God To Use Me As His Instrument

2 Corinthians 1:3-7-Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.