In resurrection, God starts all over with a new creation. But resurrection always follows suffering and death.
Herein lies an important lesson. If you make a home for the Lord Jesus Christ, hard times will come. Crisis will come. Suffering will come. Even death – in some form – will come.
Suffering is worldwide and neck deep. But for the Christian, suffering has a purpose. It’s the chiseling of God designed to transform you into the image of His Son.
A word of encouragement: if your foundations are in Jesus Christ, then you can weather the storm. You can endure the crisis. You can put on your asbestos suit and walk through the fire because you are standing on Him who is the Immovable Rock.
Sometimes God will deliver you from trouble. Oftentimes He will deliver you through it.
Yet resurrection is always on the other side, if you stand and endure.
A Spirit-led man or woman is someone who has faced tragedy, faced loss, looked unbearable and exquisite pain in the face… and has stood his or her ground.
With their garments still smoking, these men and women have said before God, mortals and angels:
“It is well with my soul. God’s enemy has thrown his best at me, and I’m still here. I’m still on the Rock. I’ve not sunk. I’m still standing. I’ve not been destroyed, and I’ve not gone under. I will continue to follow my Lord, come hell or high water. He is still on the throne!”
Be encouraged, dear child of God. If the Lord is with you, who can be against you?
No matter how tight the screws get, you press on . . . by Him, through Him, and to Him.
A Nicodemus Moment
This has given me the right perspective concerning a fiery trial I am going through. Thank you brother Frank.
Thanks for this post.
In Romans 8:17, (St.) Paul tells as, as he does elsewhere, that we are adopted children of God and heirs of God and Christ “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” This verse has troubled so many through the ages. I like N. T. Wrights commentary on this topic very much; and I quote: One of the most stricking things about some of (what we normally se as) the later material in the Neew Testament is the constant theme of suffering, suffering not as something merely to be bravely borne for Jesus’ sake, but as something that is mysteriously taken up into the redemptive suffering of Jesus himself. We won his victory through suffering; his followers win theirs through sharing in his.”
One other theologian has pointed out that when we, as Christians, find ourselves suffering, we should unite our suffering with Our Saviors suffering, calling upon the name of the Lord. When we do this we the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness and the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and prays for us with groanings too deep for words; (Romans 8:26). We are perfected in our weakness through the power of our Triune God.
We live in this “valley of tears, we call the world. We are called to not be of this world and yet we are also called to be a light; to let our lights so shine. We do this by living the life we profess in our faith. We who are called to pick up the Cross of Christ, through perseverance and trials, are perfected in Him who has redeemed us by this Paschal Mystery. We thus prove to be his disciples by living as one worthy of the calling we are called too; as St. Paul say in one of his letters.
In Christ,
Ron Iacone
Thankyou Frank. A powerful word. Jesus sustains in the darkest hour and the deepest hell. Jesus is our life.
Timely word. Thank you for sharing.