Suffering

6/2/1996

Let’s face it... We don’t weather storms because we want to. We don’t weather storms because we are tough enough. The truth is that we often weather storms simply because we can’t circumvent them anyway. We all have to weather storms in our lives. And, to each of us our own pain always seems worse than anyone else’s. That’s just how we all feel. But, God Himself orchestrates pain for each of us—for our own good. It is all very much sovereignly under His control.

And, do you know what else? If it’s your goal in life to be supernaturally fruitful, to see God’s face, to experience His presence, to know His wisdom rather than just read about it, or hear about it, or borrow it your whole life, then open up your arms to God and say, “Bring me suffering.” Because if you really want to have God’s heart and mind, His power, His compassion, His love, His sensitivity, His discernment, His wisdom, His thoughts, then you will have to embrace pain in your life.

Embrace your suffering as a tool in God’s hands to make you something more than you currently are. The attitude that you approach pain with must be the attitude of Jesus, which was “Father, not My will, but Yours be done.” You have to be willing to look to God and say, “I have a will. I have a desire. I have a thought. I have something that I want to do and a way I want to do it, but I don’t care about that right now. I prefer not to suffer. I prefer to have it my way. But God, I submit myself and yield myself to whatever You want. I will have it the way You want it to be.”

The scriptures are clear on the fact that the power of the indestructible life that Jesus was able to live out, the glory that the Father deposited on Him, was in direct proportion to His willingness to suffer with the right attitude and His willingness to open His hands to the will of God, regardless of what it cost Him personally. That is an attitude that we must have if we are going to be something more than just a bunch of lumps of clay. If there is someone that doesn’t want to live a supernatural life, then they should go do something else. Natural lives are a dime a dozen. The road is filled with natural lives. “Many will be those that find that road and that way of life.” But if you want a supernatural life, the scriptures are very, very clear.

You must be willing to embrace suffering. In the midst of the pain fix your eyes on Jesus. Do not be amongst those who shrink back and are destroyed. Not that it’s easy, because if it were easy, you wouldn’t grow. He wants to expand you to have the very heart and mind of God Himself. That’s our destiny. That’s what the scriptures call, “the full measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ.” And, that’s what He wants for us.

So, how is He going to get that from us? Will He get it by you reading a bunch of books? I don’t think so. Will He get it by the quality of your prayer time in the morning? I’m afraid not. As useful and wonderful as that is, I’ve never met a person yet who has known the heart and mind of God and who could speak supernatural wisdom and depth from the very bosom of God, that hasn’t suffered immensely, and in the midst of it, turned their eyes towards Jesus and said, “Not my will, but Yours be done. Whatever You want I’m Yours. You own me. I belong to You. Whatever You want, I’m putty in Your hands.” There has never been a person that has been supernaturally fruitful or supernaturally wise or supernaturally loving (anything beyond the human capacity of a normal mortal that has been educated well in Christian principles) that didn’t embrace suffering. The choice is simply ours.

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