SUFFERING'S JOY
Barri Cae
Oct 15, 2009
SUFFERING’S JOY
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;
but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. I Peter 4: 12-13, 19
Richard Wurmbrand served over fourteen years in a Communist prison for sharing his faith in Messiah. He told a story. Once while sleeping, a man swallowed a poisonous snake. It got stuck in his throat. He awoke in pain. A passerby fiercely beat the man till he was black and blue. The man finally regurgitated the snake. Had that passerby gave the man peace, the man would have died.
God, who knows our load limit, will limit our load. Suffering, affliction, pain, loneliness come to all. It is not a pleasant thing to be placed on the anvil of affliction. The friends of suffering are pain, isolation, the dark night of the soul, loneliness, and sorrow. Yet Paul tells us to rejoice during these times of deep sorrow.
Think upon the way a diamond is formed. For years, pure coal sits in the depths of the earth. In darkness. In intense pressure. In intense heat. Surprisingly, the more heat and pressure that is applied to this pure coal, the higher the quality is of this diamond. Are you suffering because of job loss, marriage loss, loss of mate, loss of health? Despair has brought darkness upon you? Think of the beautiful diamond. Praise God for the anvil of affliction!
Think upon the way a pearl is formed. A small mother-of-pearl bead is inserted into an oyster shell. The oyster shell does not like the irritant. It develops a hard shell around this bead. This process requires the host oyster shell to be taken out of its environment; another oyster has to die for this process to work. It takes six weeks for the oyster shell to come out of shock. It takes over two years for it to bring forth a beautiful pearl. Are you in a place where you have been pulled out of your environment? You have irritants in your life. Praise God for the anvil of affliction!
Think about that piece of gold jewelry that you own. That beauty did not just happen. Gold is a natural element but it must be heated to over 1000F. That is only one refining process. Gold by-products are sloughed off. The gold is heated repeatedly. Are you in a hot space? The heat is relentless and is there no relief? Praise God for the anvil of affliction.
Hebrews 12:5-11 states:
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, "MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM;
FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES."
It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform, wrote William Cowper. I do not even try to understand why, in God’s sovereignty, He allows suffering. Yet when we are weak, as Paul exhorts, then we are strong.
Are you on the anvil of affliction today, dear saint? Let us unite our hearts together to agree to rejoice. There is always good news in Yeshua Jesus, our Messiah. Look at God’s promise in Job 36:15-16:
But those who suffer, He delivers in their suffering;
He speaks to them in their affliction.
He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction,
to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.
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