Rejoicing in times of suffering
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Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
Sometimes we who know the Lord personally believe our suffering and trials result from something we’ve done wrong in our lives.
That can be the case, but it is not always the reason. The Bible reveals multiple instances when it was just the opposite.
The reason for suffering was due to a person’s righteousness and right standing with God. In fact, we can rejoice when we find ourselves amid these instances.
“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 1:6-7)
The amazing aspect of Jesus Christ living within is that we can go through a lot of trials and still feel joyful in our hearts because of His presence and promises.
We can be in a state of heaviness yet greatly rejoicing in God. We feel the weight of the trial, but we have confidence in God.
Not only do we have confidence, but the mere presence of God in our lives provides strength to get through. That is why God told Paul amid Paul’s physical suffering that God’s grace was sufficient for him. There is such power in God’s grace to pull us through and to actually rejoice in the moment of suffering.
“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” (I Peter 4:12-13)
Job’s friends were full of accusations concerning his intense, multi-fold trial. They believed Job’s suffering was the result of hidden sin in his life. Those assumptions were the furthest thing from the truth.
“And the LORD said unto Satan, ‘Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?’” (Job 1:8)
God knew that Job could withstand the various trials he experienced. He lost so much, including his children, his cattle, his servants, his health.
But his relationship with God was such that it did not deter him from who he truly needed – God.
Job did not curse God and die when his wife told him to do so. In the worst of his sufferings, he still held tight to God and maintained his integrity when he hurt so bad.
Concerning his material accumulation, Job understood he could take nothing with him after this life.
He came into the world naked and would leave in the same manner.
But he also comprehended that his Redeemer lived and there was eternal hope for him in God’s presence. The sufferings were but a short moment and worked in him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
When we are close to the Lord, we can handle a lot more.
Jesus provided an assessment of the local churches in the second and third chapters of Revelation. One local church received nothing but commendations from the Lord.
That church wasn’t materially wealthy, like Laodicea in the third chapter.
The church in Smyrna was strong in the Lord, and some of them endured intense sufferings because of it.
“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”
The crown of life far supersedes and exceeds the sufferings we experience in the here and now.
