Suffering is such a big subject
There is no way to write it all down or figure it all out
People come and go
They are in our lives for a time
It could be a long time or a short time
Some are important, some are not
Some mean more than others
Some we have a deep deep love for
Even so much as we would take their place in death if we could
Death comes too quick and life is but a breath
We cannot see all that God sees
Once we have committed our lives to God,
we are on the straight and narrow
The path laid before us is not always easy
In fact, most days it’s not easy at all
Suffering is a part of our lives
Humility, understanding, strength
The benefits of suffering are great,
too high for our mortal minds to comprehend completely
Isaiah says Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
Paul talks about the fellowship of His suffering
If we choose to walk the narrow road,
we will meet suffering
Most likely, we will not completely understand it
We may even wish it would end and think we can’t go on
But we can
The Lord is near to the broken hearted and bindeth up their wounds
If we want Jesus to clean our hearts, completely,
suffering is bound to be a part of it
God does not see suffering the same way we do
He sees the end result, the glistening, purified vessel we become
If you haven’t read Jeremiah in a while,
God shares much of His heart with Jeremiah,
how He had great hopes for the Israelites and they continued to stray
God’s heart was broken
He loved them, He was there for them and most refused Him
Imagine when Jesus, the Messiah came to earth
the very people who said they worshiped God,
some might’ve even been His descendants
rejected Jesus and so much so that they didn’t want Him alive anymore
Ouch, talk about pain and suffering
God understands what a broken heart feels like
Can we fix anything, of course not
Can we bring ourselves into joy by willing it or trying?
Not a chance
He has to repair our wounds
He has to comfort us
He has to love us through the situation
However long it takes
Some things cannot be hurried
God understands that
Still, He allows us to suffer
The reasons?
There are some similarities but each situation is unique and different
The answers are not easy to come by
They take searching with a diligent heart
They also may take a relinquishing of the inquiry
Time does not heal all wounds
Some can be there for years or even a lifetime
David suffered much
God loved him, that was obvious
Still, he suffered and he wrote about it in many of the psalms
Job suffered greatly, as we all know
Moses had suffering beyond measure,
God allowed Moses to understand His own heart
God gave Moses a love for His people,
just a part of what He had,
but enough for Moses to commiserate with God
God even called them Moses’ people
And the Lord said to Moses, Go, get down!
For your people whom you
brought out of the land of Egypt
have corrupted themselves. Exodus 32:7
We have a duty
We have a responsibility
We cannot just dust ourselves off and truly go on, not honestly
Our duty is to continue to seek the Lord,
to continue to honor Him as God even when He allows suffering
to come before Him in our relationship with Him
and show Him our wounds
so that He can give us what it is we need each day
The important thing is to keep knocking and seeking and listening
He will get through to us and help us to the other side
and we will be better for it
For all those things hath mine hand made,
and all those things have been, saith the Lord:
but to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word. Isaiah 66:2
Scriptural References:
Oh, remember that my life is a breath!
My eye will never again see good.
Job 7:7
He is despised and rejected of men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him;
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable unto his death;
Philippians 3:10
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;
and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalm 34:18