Hope in suffering pt1

Hope in your suffering

Before we get into hope we need to understand suffering. For those of you who have experienced
true suffering your probably thinking I have this part down, please bare with me

Suffering, what is it, what causes it, how do we react to it

I believe suffering is the physical manifestation of emotional death, to better understand how

to deal with it you first need to understand what is the cause of it.

Perhaps its divorce, loss of a loved one, loss of a job or way of life, it may be something so big its

not listed here, it could be molestation, regret of an abortion, you know what it is that has you

stripped down to the bare flesh in side! I feel empty inside is the most common answer or

response, I cant eat, sleep, function at work, I cant relate to my spouse or loved ones.

The List goes on, in short suffering is caused when a pit is dropped right under you in life and you dont know how to cope!

Now we know what suffering is, we have a idea as to what its cause and the effect it has on our life

Before you can have Hope you must first have spiritual life!

your emotions are dead, you cant go on, you've said it or thought it, "I'm done"

so how do we get to Hope? Well God has to reach into your life grab your spirit and jump start it!

thats not saying oh yay this is going to be so easy! Even though you have spiritual life the effects

your feeling are still relevent. He begins slowly, a moment, a day, a week, a month, you dig into

His word seeking His strength and in doing so you begin to grow stronger. You may not even

realize it till you look back and say "WOW ive made it so far, it still hurts but I have life again"

When you've reached this point guess what you have... HOPE!!! It starts as hope that Gods going

to make this possible, then it moves to Gods made it possible and has given me a purpose!

We will get into purpose later on, lets focus on this Hope He's given you. It may be hope that

we're starting to sleep a little better, maybe a job opened up, might not be the one but atleast

its something! It could be He brought someone into your life that is there to help you through

the pain. The fact is He begins to build on this hope, its a solid foundation that can be built on!

You may be lookin at me saying well its easy to say that sitting up there with your life all perfect

no ones life is perfect, not mine, yours, that guy over there. We all experience pain and suffering

and now we find out why God allowed it to happen to you, me, him.

James1:2-4 Consider it joy, my brothers,whenever you

experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your

faith produces patience (or endurance) But patience must do its perfect work, so

that you may be made complete lacking nothing!

WOW consider it joy? are you serious? How can i consider this joy?

why should I? Well its because that suffering your goin through is building

something inside you! What is it building you may ask, its building a blessing

a ministry, a testemony, something God Himself will use to further His work

Its an eternal Gift for you to share.

Romans 8:18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will

give us later.

Whats being said here? Perhaps, that suffering is temporal...whats temporal

mean? It wont last its like this body it dies.

It also says it doesnt compare to what He will give us late, whats the opposite

of temporal? ETERNAL!

God is building in each of us an eternal gift when we experience these trials.

So now we know more about suffering and its intent, but this still may leave us

saying, I needed peace and hope but how do I get it?

He directs us to Psalm 34:14 "Turn away from evil and do what is good;seek peace and pursue it!

I still wasnt fully understanding what He meant, evedently He wants me to

pursue peace but how. Well in seeking God I ended up seeking peace

and guess what, I found it.

We're going to get into that as well a little later on ,how to find a peace that

surpasses all understanding.

I was still struggling with how could God let this happen, and why was i feeling

the stuff I was, thats when while in a non official bible study one day with my

mom and some friends the scripture 1 Peter 5:6-10 came up

Humble yourselevs therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that He may

exalt you in due time, casting all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.

Lets stop here, we're being given a road map but more importantly a command

Cast our cares on Him and sumbit ourselves under the mighty hand of God

WOW so He wants to exalt us in due time, whats this mean? well we're going to get

to that in just a second lets understand whats being said here first.

So we are to submit ourselves to God, how many of us truely submit to the Lord

meaning, we lay down what we want, the vengence we may be wanting to seek

or purhaps the desire to check out of this life and say OK God you want me here

I am, im broken im like a bike thats been ran over by a car its no good neither am I

Gods like MR fix it on a grand scale, He sees what you can become, what He can

make you into, so give your life to Him, obviously you dont care what happens to

you at this point right? So its time to live that sacrificial life the Lord has calles us

to live.So its time to cast those care of the world you have been burdened with

on the Lord, in doing this He can start to fullfill the next part of the scripture

1Peter 5:8-10 Be sober and on alert! Your adversary the devil is prowling

around like a roaring lion seeking whom He may devour, Resist him firm in faith

Knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the

world. (wow so we're not the only one going through it, and we cant give up or

we will be consumed by the problems we're facing)

Now the God of ALL grace, who called you to His eternal Glory in Christ Jesus will

(NOW WATCH THIS)

PERSONALLY restore, establish,stregthen and support you after you have suffered

a little while

Doesnt that just give you an awesome feelings, Christ himself is going to do this

and look at the last part, after we have suffered a little while!

Why after we suffered, well we touched on this a bit earlier, its through the trials

of this life we begin to grow in faith and in spirit and Gods gives us awesome

spiritual gifts through perseverance in trials!

(will be continued so check back)