Faith In Affliction

[Meg]

Over the years, as I learned to stand in faith in the face of troubles of all sorts, I wrote essays on what I had learned. I am going through my files this morning, looking at what I had written, and I will be posting the better pieces here. I hope these writings help someone somehow.

The troubles are far from over, BTW. I am currently in the process of selling and giving away most of what I own and hoping to sell my house rather than just lose it, and we are going to be moving out of state in the next couple of weeks. I haven't worked in 2 years due to severe arthritis in my hip, and I am hoping moving to a drier, more stable climate will help me get back to work. In the face of all this, I stand behind every word I wrote, trust in Jesus Christ even so, and dearly hope we will be able to find work and housing when we arrive at our destination. I have always said win or lose, up or down, come what may, better to go through this with the Lord than without Him, and I still mean it. This isn't His fault, and He has strengthened both Robert and myself far beyond what we might have been able to handle any other way... Anyway, here are some of the essays I have written over the years.

[Meg]

Hebrews 6:1
1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

In our modern culture, we find it extremely difficult at best, to trust authority. It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is true about humanity to a great degree; it is absolutely true any time God is not in charge. It is extremely difficult for man to trust God because man has expectations and assumptions which are nearly impossible to overcome, because expectations and assumptions are driven by genuine need and genuine experience. I once heard a Pastor say that we live in a world so defined by the fact that we are mortal flesh that we can’t help but depend on the fact that we are but flesh. No matter how much we don’t like it, when people in a position that we perceive as authoritative make statements which define us, we feel we have no choice but to believe it. So faith can very seriously be limited by experience and by sensation unless we make a genuine effort to take that bold push beyond sensation and circumstance, and trust God in a type of defiance that seeks to redefine everything we hope for to be defined by His wisdom rather than the bold statements of people we perceive as authoritative.

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Hebrews 11:1-2
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

When God commended the ancients spoken of in this passage of Hebrews, He is telling us that these are trustworthy examples, set by people who were as mortal then as we are now, of how to make that bold push of genuine faith that is what we need to believe God above and beyond what would otherwise be uncompromisingly real. All too often, we are confronted by either circumstances or attitudes that seem so real, so final, that we have no choice but to accept it. A circumstance is declared utterly hopeless with such authoritative finality that we feel we have no choice but to accept it, therefore we feel forced to believe it. When the lie develops that level of credibility, the deception gains power over us.


Hebrews 11:8
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

This is the heart and soul of Sanctifying faith. Obeying and going, even though we do not understand where Jesus Christ is leading us. Bit by bit, we learn that we can trust Him enough that even though what He is saying and doing is in complete defiance of everything we once thought was true about ourselves, about each other or even about the overwhelming visible evidence we can see for ourselves.

One of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard comes from the Amazon Jungle of Ecuador. The turning point came in January of 1956. A missionary team stepped out in bold faith to make contact with a tribe of indigenous people who were so famous for killing each other that they had very nearly destroyed themselves. They are discussed to this day in college Anthropology classes as the most violent people anyone had ever heard of. The five man missionary team made peaceful contact for months from an airplane before they tried to meet these people on the ground. The first encounter went well, and the team was greatly encouraged. The second encounter, however, resulted in the deaths of all five. Circumstances declared futility and defeat. The wives, children, family members and fellow missionaries had an obvious choice defined by human logic, to do exactly what everybody else in Ecuador did, and that was avoid those people whenever possible, or kill them before they killed you. God, however, had a different approach. Not only did they keep trying to reach this tribe, they sent two women this time. One was the sister of one of the dead missionaries. The second woman was the wife of another of the men who gave their lives, and the mother of his tiny daughter.

I am making a very long story very short with that brief description, but it is well worth looking into, because this is a superb example of stepping out in faith beyond circumstance, beyond self interest, and beyond anything that could possibly make sense without God. So how does this translate into our experience? Most of us are not going to go racing off to the nearest jungle to risk our necks and hope for the best. What we are going to do is stay right where we were yesterday, knowing we’ll be right in the same spot tomorrow, facing circumstances that aren’t going to change any time soon. So how does an unstoppable force of bold and defiant faith approach the immovable object of circumstances that clearly aren’t going anywhere new? Part of the key to faith is patience. In fact, patience is about the hardest part. Patience in faith is very different from endurance in affliction. Endurance in affliction grits its teeth and seeks relief. Patience in faith seeks to serve Jesus Christ any way we possibly can, in spite of devastating circumstances. When Peter saw Jesus Christ being arrested, spat on, beaten and crucified, his efforts to endure failed him and he snapped. When the Apostle John watched exactly the same events, he served the Lord the only way he could until he saw for himself that Jesus Christ was dead. Mary Magdalene did exactly the same. All three people, each in their turn saw the impossible with their own eyes, the man they loved Rose from the dead and walked among them until He Ascended into Heaven. From There, He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and strengthen us, that we too might experience the impossible, that we too can stand in defiance of tangible and seemingly impossible circumstances to somehow heal when our circumstances are clearly killing us, to triumph when our circumstances are crushing us, to succeed when our circumstances are clearly defeating us, to be counted as precious by God when everyone else declares us worthless.

Hebrews 11:1
1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Amen

[Meg]

This is an essay I wrote in 2009 at another forum. I had been a Christian for 5 years at the time.


Religion is very swift to get us bogged down in a legalistic pulling back and forth of "good behavior" vs "bad behavior" that is often absolutely crushing -- especially when we get caught in a "bad behavior".

When I first began exploring Scripture, something I noticed early on was that the New Testament was offering a choice to see things differently. The epistles offered a way of living and responding to people and circumstances that I had only seen partly, back when life in America was simpler, and which, these days, is becoming more and more rare. Everything taught in the Bible points towards treating each other with dignity and respect. So our relationships are no longer bound to the restrictions of what pleases me, but rather what makes living in peace with each other possible.

John 1:1-4
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.


I have pondered these words for years. As I departed further and further from the way of life I had always practiced, I realized more and more deeply that the ways Jesus Christ was teaching were making not only my own life make more sense, but having a positive influence on people around me.

Titus 3:3
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.


Ephesians 4:17
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

I have been given an option to try something other than bitterness and revenge as a way of coping from the challenges that confront me. By making it clear that my sins could be left behind, through Jesus forgiveness and my own willingness to stop doing such things, it became possible to see my whole life in a much more positive way. People had always confronted me with negativity. Jesus was teaching me something very different. He was showing me that there was a way to depart from the framework of negativity that had always been the standard; to learn the difference between what was built to last, and what was just passing by. It can get rather tricky, because some statements may be true, so it is important to sort out the application of truth in the context of the situation, and pray into that until it makes sense.


Galatians 5:15
If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

We fight over things that shouldn’t matter, all the while killing the things that do. Christians proudly proclaim themselves “pro-life” all the while denying the very gifts of the adults they deal with on a day-to-day basis. Isn’t that what is happening when instead of cooperating together, everyone seems to want to “out do” each other, or shout the other person down, simply because we don’t understand the other person’s point of view? Or worse yet, as soon as we see that someone got something, in comes that horrible little voice that says that you didn’t get “anything”, causing us to forget or devalue what we did too get! The tragedy is that the unbelieving world is watching the way the church carries on in this manner, and either laughing themselves helpless in sheer contempt or fading away from any possible hope in Jesus Christ in sheer despair.

Accusation is a Spiritually fatal plague that does much to destroy first the individual from within, then, by extension, our relationships as well. It is accusation that causes divorce, family disputes, church splits, to name a few. Accusation is probably the number one cause of depression. I think it starts from within, then works outwardly towards others. All it takes is to fall short of what we might have hoped for or expected of ourselves, and we fall rapidly into self-accusation, considering ourselves a failure.

One of the more amazing things I have found in Jesus Christ is that His opinion of success and failure is very different from my own. Let's take an example from Scripture:

Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

The poor widow very likely apologized to God every step of the way from her home to the Temple for the inadequacy of her offering. She was very likely afraid that God might be disappointed at how unimpressive her tiny little coins were among so much gold and silver that got there first.

How often do we accuse ourselves of falling short of the glories of success in some way or another? I once found out that rich women spend more per month on skin care that I spend on my house payment! That right there is what self-accusation does to a person, and this is an example of what I meant when I said while a statement may be true, it is important to consider the value. Unfortunately the world rewards beauty, so all that expense on skin care can definitely seem necessary. However, one reason so many Americans are losing their houses is that they felt pressured to spend more money than they were actually able to afford, trying to defeat the accusations! So they find themselves bankrupt, and looking great as they fall into genuine disaster, all the while trying to avoid being accused of not being beautiful enough!

When Jesus calls you, He was not looking for someone else, and settling for you instead. He was looking for you. No one sees us the way Jesus does. He has the most amazing way of being able to tell what our best gifts and talents are; He often sees things in us that we ourselves would never have guessed were there. He also sees our hurts and sadnesses in a way that is totally unique to Him.

Romans 8:1-2
1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

John 12:47
“…For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.”

Jesus isn’t into blame, but sometimes He will explain where and why something went wrong. He can and does also simply heal us from the inside, or correct our harmful emotions. His goal is always to heal; since passing blame doesn’t do any good, He doesn’t do that. This is where forgiveness ties in; blame and unforgiveness are the same thing. So in order to join hands with Jesus and cooperate with Him, we must be able to find a way to forgive; forgive ourselves, and forgive those who hurt us. This isn’t something we are able to do easily, so prayer is very important, and so is the Holy Spirit, Who specializes in making the impossible possible.

While it certainly can be difficult to forgive someone else, it is even more difficult to forgive yourself. Thanks to the seemingly endless criticism that comes at us from the media and from other people, we tend to see ourselves in a constant state of not-good-enough. Women can never be thin enough, men can never be successful enough, so we are being constantly battered with negative messages. No wonder we do the same sort of thing to each other! Well, I’ve got news for you, most of those negative messages are lies. That’s right, lies.

What is success, really? What is of value, really? Some people speak of what you can and cannot “take with you” when you die, but we should also consider what is really of value while we are here living. Take money, for example. Money is only useful if you have somewhere to spend it. You can have a stuffed wallet, but if you’re stuck in a traffic jam, 5 miles from the nearest gas station, that money doesn’t mean much, but the person whose willing to take you to the gas station suddenly means everything! Now what about relationships; someone who is good to look at can be very nice, but someone you can really trust will matter so much more when you need them most.

So trust would be the most valuable thing we can develop. First, we must be able to trust ourselves. Jesus obviously saw something in you that He can trust, so a good thing to do would be to ask Him what He saw. I once asked in prayer, “Who do You think I am?” at a point when I got sick of everybody else telling me who they seemed to think I am. The answers to that question are still unfolding, and that part of my journey is really special. That’s one of the really cool things about Jesus Christ, is His opinion of who you really are. He can pick out gifts and talents in you that you might not have even guessed were there.

So try to develop yourself to be someone you can trust, Jesus can trust, and everyone else can trust. If you are tempted to do something wrong, its always safe to just not do it and see what happens. Cars have brakes for a good reason, and so do we. Its OK to take a chance on giving thanks for the good things about yourself, and try to build on those things. Its also OK to try to be satisfied with what you do have, even if its maybe not as much as you’d like to have, until things have a chance to change. Try to be as stable as possible with what you have safe; sometimes we get caught thinking what we do have isn’t good enough, so we throw that away before we have something better to replace it. Try to be careful to hang onto what you do have until you are sure you have something better to replace it.

BUT this NEVER works with people. One nasty trick the devil pulls on us is to put down someone we love “You can do better…” is the deadly little thought. That was one of the most grievous lessons I have ever had to learn; people cannot be replaced. If you have a special friend, please understand that there is only one of that person. You almost certainly will not find someone else who has most of what’s special about that one person, but with all that and more! Believe me, I’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work that way!

Someone I knew online once said: "many people are overwhelmed with too much information...Pastors nowadays tend to think transformation happens through information but the next week we forget sometimes the very next day"

I have noticed this as well... They try so hard to keep church "interesting" that they go from topic to topic way too fast. I was praying this morning about all the religious confusion, and the Holy Spirit said that there is too much information in the Bible for most people to keep up with, so they take one small part to build on.

It just breaks my heart the way people shut each other as well as themselves down. My friend also said: "we compliment one another with different gifts and insight." Oh yes, absolutely! Thats why its so important to allow one another to speak, to explore, to ask questions. I search as deeply as I do, because #1, I honestly didn't believe that Christianity expressed the truth about God in the first place, and #2, this Faith is absolutely not something I would have chosen or ever wanted to. For most of my adult life I viewed Christianity with real disgust. I am going through a phase right now where Christianity as a "religion" is just a real turn-off. But at the same time, the things I have struggled with for the first 5 years are coming sharply into focus, because these very things have strengthened my faith to the point where I am actually able to withstand the current challenges.

I can say is that Jesus Christ is real, or there is absolutely no way I would be in this! For these reasons, I think it critical that people make a real effort to get beyond the legalism and theological nitpicking and try to understand life from God's point of view. There must be something deeper than "do this, don't do that" in the name of religion.

[Meg]

From 2005


Faith.
1 Corinthians 12:9 states that Faith is a Gift of the Holy Spirit. Later, in the same discussion, Paul goes on to say “31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts.” (1 Corinthians 12:31). I guess a lot of people have opinions on what the “greater gifts” may or may not be, but in my mind, the greatest Gift of all would have to be Faith. It would seem to me that Faith is the glue that’s going to hold everything together when you need it most, and frankly when it might not seem like you need anything at the moment.

So where, then does this faith come from? Is there a difference between “faith” and “belief”? Speaking from experience and observation, I’m pretty sure there is. From what I’ve learned so far, the endless variety of church denominations are based on “beliefs”. I say this for two reasons, the first would be the standard collections of sentences and/or whole paragraphs that go with those assorted denominations under the heading “What We Believe”. The second reason comes from a statement made about the Chinese underground church; in The Heavenly Man, Brother Yun said that when well-meaning people from America started teaching all their different denominational “beliefs”, the confusion very nearly tore the close brotherhood of Chinese Pastors apart! The men got into arguments over all the different teaching, and finally one man just started washing another man’s feet, in this way proclaiming that only holding on to love could they stand together! I guess that is as good a description of the difference between Faith and belief. Faith depends first on Love; belief depends on an opinion! Theology, therefore, may start as an honest effort to defend Faith, but theology very rapidly sinks into error when everybody starts arguing about their OPINIONS about Scripture!

So how, then, do we find this Gift Of Faith? “Be still and know that I Am God.” (Psalm 46:10) I can say from very challenging experience that its not easily done sometimes. Remember Paul said to “eagerly desire” such a thing as Faith. I honestly would say strive for it or work hard for it -- Faith matters that much. It is hard, very hard, to “be still” when everything is falling apart. I almost lost my house in 2004. I was actually facing homelessness. I had -- I think it was 5, foreclosure notices and a letter discussing the ways I could dispose of my home. Oh the prayers I prayed in those dark months! I was terrified of going homeless! Deeply in Scripture, I had been studying Job and 1 and 2 Samuel for examples of how to handle such a crisis, deeply thankful for those who walked in a wilderness without the benefits of Scripture that I had in my own hands, since these very people were the ones who lived the lives that Scripture is written about! I didn’t envy them. But I did learn from them; and I learned a thing or two about prayer and faith. I learned how to come to a point where I could say “Lord, I am very scared, but not my will but Yours be done. If it truly is Your will that I lose my house, I will trust Your Will in this.” All I can say now is that it must have been the Holy Spirit who gave me such strength. It couldn’t have been me alone.

That being said, I did depend heavily on Scripture for a guide, and raw honest, very thorough prayer in my efforts to “eagerly desire” enough faith to survive the fears and doubts. I saw no point in accusing God; instead, I brought before Him my thoughts and concerns about family matters not open for public discussion, as well as my personal concerns. It seemed better to me to trust in God’s character than it might be to doubt His integrity. So I guess that’s how we might strive to attain a Holy Spirit assisted Gift of Faith. For the record, there weren’t any overt miracles at any time, but I did try one last time to find a solution, and that was when I got myself hired, and I still have my home. And my Faith.

[Meg]

From 2008 or 2009


Faith In Times Of Trouble Part 1

I truly believe that the Gifts Of The Holy Spirit are not given lightly. I also believe that God wouldn’t help us with anything He thinks we can do ourselves; He is busy. That being said, one of the most heartrending questions people ask is “Why does a God of love allow suffering?” That very question must be the most damaging doubt in the history of humanity in search of our Creator. It deserves a sane answer.

All of us at one time or another, have either been greatly harmed by genuine evil, or have heard of someone else who has. Every time a person chooses hate and bitterness as an option in their lives, somebody gets hurt. Yet, when one person chooses to harm another, someone almost always starts with “How did God let this happen?” In fact, that very question caused me to firmly reject Christianity when I was about 20. I couldn’t imagine a loving God permitting His people to suffer; I was myself deeply in love at the time, and could not imagine deliberately allowing something bad to happen to my man. It has only been since I have had to strive for my own faith that I have been able to see the value in struggling to break through to a deeper understanding of these things.

Because we have always been able to make the dangerous choice between good and evil, we really don’t notice what it is doing to ourselves and to others around us. Sin, for us here on Earth is actually normal, rather like breathing. All too often, sin seems to work to our advantage as well. When it does, we find we like sin; its only when sin works against us that we don’t like it so much after all. Remember, now that sin entered us through Eve, then Adam, making a choice that God warned them both not to make. They both made the terrible mistake of guessing that maybe God didn’t really mean what He said, or maybe He didn’t really know everything there is to know. That is a mistake that is much more dangerous than it might look. Now, let us remember whose idea it was in the first place and why. It was satan who came up with the idea that God didn’t really mean what He said, and that if Eve tasted the difference between good and evil, that she would be “…like God, knowing good and evil”. Genesis 3:5. Well, there’s an old-fashioned saying that goes “There’s a right way and a wrong way…” God certainly does know all about the difference between good and evil, but He also knows why it matters. I think that has a lot to do with why He allows suffering, and I think that has to do with why Jesus Christ freely chose to endure suffering Himself. You see, it is very unfair to ask anyone else to do something you won’t do yourself, and God is not unfair; satan, however is always unfair and always will be. It is satan’s ideas that lead to so much harm, and in fact, it was Adam’s free choice to go along with satan’s ideas that caused us all to have so much difficulty in this life. Adam wasn’t asked, Adam chose to take what God warned him to leave alone. That is why Faith is the most important Gift Of The Holy Spirit. It is Faith in what God is asking of us, Faith in what God is showing us, Faith in where God is leading us and why that will give us the ability to see the difference between good and evil, therefore allowing us to truly become Christlike, which is the whole goal of our Faith in the first place. Faith is the way that the wrongness of the choice Eve made becomes right.

This is part one, this is the foundation of why Faith is so important.

[Meg]

Faith In Times Of trouble Part 2

When I first started out as a Christian, I was really a mess, and I knew it. As I read my Bible, and looked at the difference between how I was thinking and how God was thinking, I knew there were a lot of changes I needed to make. I was OK with that, though, since nothing else I had tried over the years had been working, and the very same sort of things I had been trying all my friends had tried too, and I have a lot of dead friends. Too Many…

I found out early that there were a lot of Christian shows on TV, and it was nice to listen to that sort of thing in my own home. Some of them made more sense than others, but one thing they all seemed to have in common was this thing about how much God wanted to give us all wonderful things, especially money. Oh yea, and most of them seemed to think that God just wanted more than anything to see us all married too -- happily married at that! Thanks to those nice TV preachers, I went through a time that lasted a couple of years where I looked carefully at the single men in church and waited eagerly for the job of my dreams to drop out of the sky. Well -- it didn’t exactly work that way. I’m still single, and I am still stuck in a dead-end job. I still have to be very careful with money if I want to make ends meet. I don’t date either. Now I can only think of two reasons why my life is like this, either God doesn’t care, or there’s something wrong with what those nice people on TV are saying. Now I don’t exactly think they’re all lying; I know plenty of Christians who have nice marriages and good jobs.

On the other hand, thanks to David Wilkerson, a preacher who doesn’t have a TV show, but he does have a fine news letter, there is no doubt in my mind that I’m not the only Christian who ever had problems. Rev. Wilkerson wasn’t my only witness either; the Lord saw to it very early on that I knew that there are people in other countries who are tortured, imprisoned and murdered for refusing to deny Jesus Christ. I didn’t know that. I was deeply shocked. There was one picture that really stands in my mind, of a lovely young woman from Afghanistan who had acid thrown in her face; one side of her face was just ruined, yet she had the most beautiful happy smile I have ever seen on anyone. Then there is the Bible itself. Most of the Psalms speak of actually begging God for help because of overwhelming trouble. Not just David, either, but others as well.

It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, to fully understand that God does love us very deeply, but that doesn’t mean that we just get everything the easy way. I have really had to fight to get that through my head. To be perfectly honest, I’m pretty sure that most Christians don’t understand this either, and that misunderstanding is causing a lot of trouble in the American churches. I think its why we see so many weird stories about churches that have fallen into all sorts of false teaching. Keeping your faith intact when you’re not getting what you honestly need takes a lot of patience and a lot of determination. If you’re going to trust in God because the Bible says you should, but your life says something else entirely is the most difficult thing you could ever try. This is where the theology called Word-Faith comes from. The best teaching I could find on these things points out that just because you cannot see what you are trusting God for doesn’t mean you can’t have it. I don’t think he’s quite as wrong as some people think he is, but I do think its very important to be able to take a “No” from God Himself, if that’s His final answer. Why? Because God has needs too. I know that Scripture says that we don’t have anything that God doesn’t already have, but the one thing God lets Himself need from us is our trust. He needs that trust to show for other people, both to unbelievers and Christians, when we have nothing but Faith to hang on to. Why? The answer if found in Job 2:1-8

“1 On another day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."
3 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
4 "Skin for skin!" Satan replied. "A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."
6 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life."
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.”

I have been known to literally hang onto those words for dear life. God was actually bragging about Job’s faithfulness. God was bragging about Job, not because Job was being faithful because of everything going right, but because God knew Job’s heart and mind well enough to be confident that when everything went wrong, horribly wrong, Job would still be faithful. And he was. Some day, I am going to give dear Job the biggest hug…

[mattfivefour]

I pray this expression of what you have learned of God through bitter trial will edify and encourage others who are going through similar hard experiences. It is in these trials that God teaches us, purifies us, and draws us closer to Himself.

[Robert]

He does, and He also uses those trials and afflictions to shape us for service to Him. Instead of being adverse to suffering, I think we need to start trusting the Lord when it comes our way. We may not be able to view it from His point of view, but we can certainly trust Him when it does come our way.

Remember: as soldiers in Christ, we are "behind enemy lines". We need to stop looking so much for comfort, and start looking to see how we can serve the Lord in the capacity He has called us, much as soldiers on duty in battle are not seeking comfort, but service and ways to perform their duties.