So I have been thinking a lot lately about the things people have been talking about all this suffering and how we grow so much in our suffering. First, let me say that I agree that we can grow very much in our relationship with Christ in our suffering. The times I have grown the most have been in times when I was going through the hardest of times in my life. I am not gonna disagree that suffering can spur a person on towards a new outlook and greater love for Jesus.
However I worry when people say that they ask for suffering in their lives. I think that this can be considered very ungrateful. If things are going good for us, it is only because God is blessing us in our lives at that time. He is the one that is giving us all the blessings and good things in our lives. To ask for suffering is almost saying to God that I don't want your gifts of blessings and good tidings in my life. I just don't think God wants us to completely forget and put to waste what God is blessing in our life.
That being said, when things are going good, we should be reflecting on God and praising and thanking Him and constantly asking us for challenges and things for us to further His kingdom here on Earth. When things are going for us in our lives it is a gift of God. In the good times we should turn to Him and continue to love and fear Him. Our hearts should be more and more thankful for what he has blessed us with. We should not only turn to Christ when we think we really need Him. Because the truth is we always need Him. Without Him we are nothing.
Instead of asking for suffering in our lives, I think we should ask God how to take more risks and to step outside of our comfort zones. Suffering is inevitable, we don't need to ask for it. I think that asking for suffering can be a very unselfish thing if the reason is to know Christ better and to love him more deeply. If we think things are going to well for us, we need to take Christ to places we don't think about and put ourselves into more situations which push us into uncomfortable situations.
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the
majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
1 Chronicles 29:11
2 comments:
I can't imagine asking for suffering. What really gets me is that when we ask for patience, or bravery (not to quote Evan Almighty or anything), He really gives us those opportunities.
I don't want an opportunity to patient! What I want is to never have to be patient at all. But that's not the deal, is it?
You invite Him in, and He eventually goes to work at your Heart, like a dentist. It's not always pleasant, because He's making it look more like His. That's an awful lot of drilling He has to do.
I think when we say to Him, "Change me, Lord. Make me righteous. Make me love as You love," we are inviting Him in to do work on our hearts, and that can be like suffering. But I can't imagine asking for the suffering instead of asking to be made more like Him, or in other words, more into the person He intended for me to become when He first thought of me.
I like your blog a lot, thought I'm sort of sad you haven't written in it in a long time.
Thanks Mandy for your comments and thoughts. I am truly sorry as well that I have not posted in awhile... life has been crazy and blogging just hasn't made it into my schedule. But hang with me as I promise I will be updating it here soon as school winds down for me.
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