Suffering

Recently God has been teaching me a lot about suffering. Not that I've experienced tremendous suffering lately, but regardless, I've learned a lot this past week. One of the things I've learned is that God disciplines his children, and discipline is not comfortable. We will suffer through discipline, such as hard experiences, but God uses those to make us stronger, and can use those to help other people in the future.

This past weekend I was kind of depressed because one of my best friends here at college went home for almost a week for her sister's wedding, so I didn't get to see her at all. It was only suffering on a small scale, especially when contrasted to a death in a family or some other tragic event, however, it was painful enough that God was able to use it to teach me throughout the week because of it.

Discipline is not fun. It hurts.  But it  produces good results in the end, and is therefore, worth the pain. God began teaching me this concept when the pastor at the church I attend here introduced the topic on Sunday through the book of Hebrews. Later this week, I was feeling particularly low (stressed because of finals, and lonely) and after our hall dinner, I sat out in a field and decided to read my bible before going to work that night. When I opened up my bible God really spoke to me through several verses.


Psalm 18: 1-3:
"I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies."

Psalm 37: 5-8, 39-40
"Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light. And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret becuase of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes topass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret- it only causes harm."

"But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked. And save them, Because they trust in Him."

 Isaiah 43:1

"But now, thus says the LORD who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine.'"


Hebrews 12:4-9

"You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhoration which speaks to you as sons:

     'My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.'

If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?"

and last but not least: 
Revelation 1:8

"'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,' says the Lord, 'who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.'"

Then later that day I sat down on my friend's fouton in her room (the friend that had been gone) because I was just hanging out with her. She was reading a book for one of her classes, but she had put it down, so I picked it up and began reading. I don't believe it was a coincidence, that what I began reading was about suffering. After reading a couple paragraphs, I laughed and looked up thinking, "Okay, God. I get it."

God has definitely been at work in my life this week. I am very thankful for his presence in my life, and am beginning to see suffering as a positive thing, even though it hurts.

Today while reflecting I also discovered two things that I frequently suffer from, and have issues with. Stress, which is pretty self explanatory, and trying to deal it with myself. And also, loneliness. It may seem like neither of them are a big deal, but they are reoccurring struggles in my life, that I find myself wrestling with the most. I'm not sure if they will always be things that I struggle with, but I do know that God can, and will, use my struggles to glorify Him.