There are several things that we are promised. A couple of those are…

1. We will suffer

2. God is good

For several months now God has had this idea of suffering stirring inside of me. Not only because I’ve suffered over the past months but because I believe God is trying to teach me about loving Him better. I do that through understanding suffering.

What does suffering have to do with love? Everything! We can’t truly understand the love of something until it’s costed us something.

Last Sunday at our neighbor group we talked about this verse in Luke..

^{Luke 33}Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.

What I get out of this verse is this…. If I work to preserve my life, that will be my reward. But if I let go of MY stuff, I stand to gain everything that God has for me.

Here’s the catch… I’ll gain it on God’s terms…

What does that mean? That means that His ways are not my ways. He never promises easy. In fact, He promises that we’ll be hurt for His name sake…

^{Luke 12-15}“But before any of this happens, they’ll arrest you, hunt you down, and drag you to court and jail. It will go from bad to worse, dog-eat-dog, everyone at your throat because you carry my name. You’ll end up on the witness stand, called to testify. Make up your mind right now not to worry about it. I’ll give you the words and wisdom that will reduce all your accusers to stammers and stutters.

^16-19“You’ll even be turned in by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you will be killed. There’s no telling who will hate you because of me. Even so, every detail of your body and soul—even the hairs of your head!—is in my care; nothing of you will be lost. Staying with it—that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.

Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like to strive for something SO MUCH that you’d be willing to risk it all for it? To hell with the consequences! Right?

Why? Because it’s the struggle, it’s the hurt, it’s the challenge… it’s the suffering that makes the end result beautiful. The problems is that we’ve been conditioned by the American Church to think that if we accept Jesus life will be easy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If we’re not careful, this is what trips us up and keeps us from understanding the cost and reward of suffering.

But what if it were more? What if through suffering the lights were brighter or scenes were viewed in sharper contrast? Wouldn’t that be worth having the dark times deeper? It’s the dark that makes the light more brilliant.

Suffering is inevitable… the question will remain… what will we do with it?

I don’t want to live my life simply preserving it.

Do you?

If we do… we’ll lose it….

I want to LIVE. Give me deep dark suffering so that the glory of God may be brilliant…

God help me to suffer well….

Maybe you need to fill in these blanks…

If God chooses to (FILL IN THE BLANK) then God is God and God is good.
If God doesn’t (FIL IN THE BLANK) then God is STILL God and God is STILL good.

Let’s keep Zac Smith in our prayers.