And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
1 Peter 5:10
I don’t want to suffer. Nobody does. It’s not any kind of natural inclination. Indeed, if I wanted a hard life, something would be wrong in a really twisted way. But pain and suffering are real. Pain is a necessary and occasionally a good thing. Without pain we wouldn’t grow. Without pain we wouldn’t have a God-designed mechanism to avoid what is harmful to us. Pain keeps us from burning ourselves on a hot stove.
But pain can also be really intense. Disease or illness can bring suffering. The broken world around us will unleash kinds of suffering. The evils of hatred, war, injustice, and pride can lead to all kinds of human suffering on a large and tragic scale. And even if Christians do right, trust the gospel, and seek to live like Jesus, we may know rejection, pain, and suffering from people who will have none of that from us.
Suffering is big. God’s comfort is bigger. We may suffer a little while, but grace is SO MUCH BIGGER! No suffering is forever for the Christian. But eternal glory in Christ is always our destiny. And God promises to involve Himself in our pains. God will restore... God will hold us safe... God will give us strength... God will build us up... in that faith we never suffer without hope and will see a better grace at work in our lives!
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