Suffering can be part of God’s plan for us. Not the encouragement you may have wanted to hear today! And yet our experiences confirm that becoming a Christian is not a free ticket to a trouble-free life. And neither does Scripture – Jesus makes sure we know that it’s the opposite! ‘In this world you will have trouble…’ he says. I’m very glad he didn’t stop there, but went on with, ‘But take heart! I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).
When you belong to Jesus, you can be sure that whatever struggle you’re going through, he is with you in it, giving you his grace to cope and even bringing something valuable out of it. Maybe not something obvious, but your God-surrendered response to your situation could sow the seeds of the gospel in the non-Christians around you.
This month, Penny Boshoff offers a solution for coming to terms with the difficult calling of God on our lives: ‘Prayer is the only way forward. For when we pray we surrender our emotional and our human wisdom, we line ourselves up with the Lord and trust him for all that lies ahead.’ This is just what the apostle Paul did. He responded fully to all that God asked of him. He knew that to advance God’s kingdom on the earth, claiming people back from Satan’s control, would be an enterprise shot through with pain. But it was a joy and honour for him to suffer for the inestimable worth of seeing his Jesus glorified in the world.
Today, things may not be going smoothly in your life. Maybe it’s your fault, or someone else’s, or has just come out of the blue. It’s often tempting to apportion blame when we face some kind of crisis but ultimately not very fruitful. And yet how we respond to our struggles is hugely significant and holds the potential for powerful spiritual breakthrough. The important thing is not to define ourselves by how apparently successful or unsuccessful we are. Whatever our situation, the most important thing is where our identity is rooted. If it’s in our changing circumstances and feelings we are bound to stagger under the blows life deals us.
But Jesus has wrapped us in his own righteousness and presented us to his Father as an acceptable offering. Therefore we can live out of the conviction that the Father regards us in the same way he regards Jesus, and know that nothing in this world (or anywhere else) can for even a moment separate us from the all-consuming, all-sustaining, eternally grace abundant love of God in Christ Jesus who is supreme over all.
How then can we make that count in the way we live this month?
Be blessed,
Phil Andrews
Editor