There are many of us who once had a
burning vision of God's Kingdom, a
zeal to do His will, a joy which
greeted us every morning when we got up.
But somewhere since that moment when we
first saw God's glory in the face
of His Son, a shadow fell across our
lives which seems to have robbed us of
our zeal - the shadow of suffering.
For most of us it has not been acute suffering, like
violent persecution. It's the nagging kind. That dull pain that seems to grab
hold of our life, and won't let go, and keeps sapping our strength. A woman in
an unhappy marriage after the first glow of faith has faded, sinks once more
into boredom, discontent, self-pity. She says to herself, "If only I had a
little satisfaction in my home I might be able to rise
up and serve God with joy. But how can I serve God in this prison?" A man
who has a miserable job and, as far
as he can see, no chance of switching into something else: every morning when
he goes to work he feels sick in the stomach. And when
the day is over he's so emotionally drained, there's
no strength left to serve God in his home. Or a woman who prepared herself to
spend her life in the kind of work where she has real gifts, but somehow the
door of opportunity always seemed to open at the wrong time or in the wrong
place. A man who feels he has talent, yet every time he approaches an
opportunity where he can use his talent, he's rejected; his high hopes are met
with slammed doors, until the root
of bitterness in his soul becomes a mammoth tree. It's like trying to sleep in
a bed that's too short; every time you stretch out you crash against the headboard.
Like trying to sleep in a blanket that's too small. Every time you pull it up
over your shoulders your feet freeze.
We point to our unhappy situation convinced that"
if this thing were removed then I could serve God." Whereas the truth, if
we'd only face it, is that this thing we're complaining about, this
circumstance we blame for our fruitless life, is actually God-sent. It's the
doorway to reality. The door keeps pursuing us and saying, "Here, walk
through me into life," and we keep running away from it, blaming it for
all our woes.
...When we cry, "Aba, Father!"
it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with
the glory that is to be revealed to us. Romans 8:15b-18
Suffering — why is it always there? Why does our Lord
say that in this world we will have tribulation? Why does Jesus add to every
promise of blessing this side of glory, the promise that there will also be a
cross to carry? Why does Paul tell us that through many tribulations we must
enter the Kingdom of God? Why do the apostles encourage us to glory in our
trials, to rejoice at the fiery ordeal which comes to prove us?
We need to see our suffering, our dull path, this
weary pain, this affliction for what it really is: the doorway to life.
Oswald Chambers in his rich
little book, So Send I You, expounds on a teaching which he calls
Vision, Valley, Verity. First, God takes us up on the mountain and gives us the vision of what we are to be by His
grace. Then God takes us down into the valley and starts hammering us into
shape. He puts us into the furnace and heats us. Then He pulls us out and,
while we're still malleable, hammers on us; puts us back in the heat, pulls us
out and hammers some more until finally the vision we saw on the mountain becomes
verity. Now we are in fact sons of God formed in the very image of Jesus.
God didn't bring you into this world to give you some
fleeting days of shallow happiness. He isn't your "Uncle in the Furniture
Business" whose only purpose is to give you bargains galore. God is
forming you into an eternal son/daughter. He is making you into a creation of
such splendor you'd die on the spot right now if you could but see a glimpse of
what you will some day be---provided you let God
form, mold, grind, chip and buff you.
God is going to work on you until you are perfected in
the image of Jesus, or until it's clear that you will never let Him do it,
giving Him no choice but to allow you to fly off forever into a self-chosen,
self-made hell.
I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of
God... Romans 8:18-19
Before the sons of God can be revealed they have to be
made, they have to be formed. And this cannot be done without pain.
If there's any lesson that needs to be learned by us
at this hour it's to take our sufferings, whatever they are, dull and
un-dramatic as they may be, and let them accomplish their purpose in God---for
us. Instead of endlessly running from our sufferings, kicking against them,
complaining about them, to turn around and walk through them into life.
If you don't like that situation you're in, pray about it. Tell God you can't stand
it. Ask Him to remove it. But if God tells you what He told Paul about his
thorn in the flesh, do what Paul did. Submit to it. Glory in it! And every time
the thought comes back to your mind, "Why must I suffer like this?"
consider these facts:
First, there are certain
lessons we only seem to learn the hard way. Much of our suffering is not a
cross at all but a chastening which became necessary because we refused to
listen to what we know very well God told us countless times. You keep abusing
your body. You never get enough sleep, chain smoke, have careless eating
habits. God keeps warning you, and you
don't listen. Then one day you're sick. Or perhaps your favorite hobby is to
play games with other people's lives. And now you've found a way to do it
"in the name of the Lord." The Spirit counsels you that you're
putting your hands on the holy ark of another man's soul - to quit it! But you
don't listen. Suddenly you find yourself rejected for the fiftieth time by the
people you're trying to manipulate. Don't call it persecution, learn your
lesson, or it will happen again.
Or perhaps you've made an idol out of your ministry.
Your particular work for the Lord has become far more important to you than the
Lord Himself. The Spirit calls you to repentance, warns you to put your heart
into God's Kingdom not your kingdom, but you don't seem to listen until your
kingdom blows up in your face.
But learning the hard way is not the only reason why
we suffer. There's another kind of suffering which comes for a much more
wonderful reason. It's called in scripture suffering with Christ.
...and if
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans
8:17
Beloved, do not be surprised at the
fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange
were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's suffering,
that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. I Peter 4:12-13
The Spirit of God leads us down a road where we begin
to experience the very things Jesus went through for our redemption.
He was despised and rejected by men; a
man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Isaiah 53:3a
Now God allows us to taste the pain our Lord felt as
He walked that road of sorrows for us. And as we taste that pain, three
wonderful things begin to happen to us. First, we experience fellowship
with Jesus on a level we never knew existed. Suddenly we have the awareness
that we're not alone in this valley, we have a companion at our side who not
only understands each and every thing we're going
through but shares the burden with us. Pretty soon we find that Jesus is not
merely sharing our burden but in a wonderful mystery is giving us the privilege
of sharing His burden.
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your
sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in
Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church... Colossians
1:24
We are coming to know Jesus, not only
in the power of His resurrection but also in the fellowship of His sufferings,
becoming like Him in His death.
The second thing that happens as we taste the pain of our Lord's cross in our bodies
and circumstances is that His death working in us transforms us into agents of
life. As His death works in us, His life flows out of us to others. The thing
that causes us to have the aroma of life as we travel through this world, the
thing that enables us to reach out and touch others with the life of God, to
heal the brokenhearted and to set the captives free is the suffering of Jesus
which is now at work in our very flesh. There has never been a man or woman of
God who conveyed authentic healing whose own life was not imprinted with the
marks of Jesus' suffering and death.
The third thing
that happens as we share in our Lord's suffering is that we are perfected by
it. It was His suffering that atoned for our sins, and it is the fellowship of
His sufferings that cleanses our hearts and minds and bodies from their bent to
sin. If our Lord was made perfect through suffering, the sons/daughters He
brings to glory are also made perfect through suffering. If the Son of God
learned obedience through the things which He suffered, you can be sure that He
is now teaching us obedience as He leads us through this valley. And, praise
God, the valley has an end.
The instant we are finally formed in the image of the
Son of God, the fire is withdrawn and the hammering stops and we find ourselves
standing before the Lamb surrounded by countless others who have come through
this valley, and we know that not one pain we ever felt, not one hurt that ever
came our way was wasted.
I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to
us. Romans
8:18
Meanwhile, our journey through the valley is itself a
blessed thing. Even as we suffer, the Spirit of glory and of God anoints us.
May God help us to glory in our
sufferings, our trials, our weakness, that the power of His Son may rest upon
us.