Everyone is going to face trials in this life. Everyone is going to go through suffering. But everyone’s suffering and trials may look different. And you could have the same trials as someone else yet your life looks completely different in the way your respond or how hard it hits.
If there is one thing we are promised as christians in this world, it is suffering. A lot of people think that if you are a christian, your life is sunshine and rainbows. I hate to break it to them, but it is very far from that. There are times where it feels like sunshine and rainbows. But there is also thunder and tornado times where it feels like everything around you is not going right and it feels like there is so much destruction happening in your life. There are mountain highs and valley lows. There is sunshine and rainbows some days, and then thunder and tornadoes the next.
Life is so unpredictable to us, yet the Lord already knows what is going to happen. We may be stressing about a job interview yet the Lord knew way before you were even born whether you would get that job or not. The Lord knows what you are going through, will go through, and have gone through.
This might not make sense, but the Lord allowed you to go through those things for a purpose. You may not see a purpose in the pain and heartbreak you have gone through. Maybe you are going through a break up. Maybe you lost a child. Maybe you can’t get even one stable day with your mental health. There are so many things that feel pointless, stupid, and heartbreaking. You look at these things in the midst of it and feel hopeless. You question as to why you have to go through this.
The Lord has a purpose for your pain. He has a purpose for your heartbreak. The Lord will get glory from the things you have gone through.
Suffering is not something any one of us would ever want to go through. No one wants to go through pain and heartache. But those moments are sometimes the most beautiful with the Lord.
The moments in your suffering where you are real, raw, and honest to the Lord are some of the most vulnerable yet beautiful times you will ever go through. When you are breaking down, tears streaming down your face, hands shaking, scream crying to the Lord because you are in so much pain, those are some of the most beautiful moments. They definitely do not feel like it in the moment, but in those moments, the presence of the Lord is with you. He is there listening and sending His Spirit to comfort you. Sometimes you feel it, and sometimes you don’t. But the Lord is there in those moments.
I have been through my fair share of sufferings. Honestly, some of it is really hard. Okay, most of it has been really hard. But there is beauty in the suffering. My suffering points me back to the Lord. It reminds me of the deep dependence I need on Him to get through any day of my life. The Lord uses my suffering to bring me back to Him.
It would be easy to fall into this idea that you only go through suffering when you are falling away from the Lord. Guys, that’s not true. There have been times I was so close to the Lord, yet had to go through things that weren’t great. I do not think your closeness to the Lord keeps you from trials. This makes me think of Job. He was a faithful man. He did all the right things. He was picked out of everyone on the earth to go through intense suffering BECAUSE he was such a faithful man that the Lord trusted that nothing the devil could throw at him would get him to curse God.
When you go through trials, what is your first reaction? Is it to fix the problem? Is it to go to God and just sit with Him and be honest with Him about how you are feeling and what you are going through? Is it to just drop God like He doesn’t matter because obviously He doesn’t care about you because He allowed you to go through this?
Suffering and trials can be a beautiful thing. I think being in the midst of them suck and feel never ending. But when it’s over, there could be so much beauty. Maybe this trial brought you close to the Lord. Maybe this trial brought you back to friends. Maybe this trial was needed so that you could rebuild that relationship. Maybe you were broken down so that you could be there for other people who were broken down. Maybe you went through that trial because you are meant to help someone else through it and you needed to go through it to truly understand it.
1 Peter talks a lot about trials. It talks a lot about Christ going through trials. Christ went through His trials so that He could bring you to the Lord holy and blameless. He went through these things in order that we may live based on God’s will and not fleshly desires.
We need to not be afraid when trials come our way. Trials and suffering are not a bad thing. They can be used to help make us more Christlike. They are used to bring the Lord glory. They are used to shape and mold us into who the Lord wants us to be.
Hold onto hope and stay strong.
Madison Rae <3
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