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Explain how the following statement relates to the reason that Christians must suffer: “… something deep in the soul must be disturbed or deep change won’t occur”.
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Christians’ suffering come from the convictions by the Holy Spirit and seeing our self centeredness and knowledge of our own deficiency. It is a process that we must go through to get us to repent and go back to God. Knowing God is faithful and have mercy does not automatically translate into we would depend on Him. Our suffering experiences will solidify our commitment to offer our lives to Christ and be separated from the world.
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Not long ago, I’m not sure I understood suffering. I know people suffer and have hard times, but I felt like I had a handle on my life. In the past few months, everything has become intense and overwhelming and “suffering” describes my current state of mind and heart unlike I’ve ever known. It’s ironic, as I go through this course. My prayer life was stronger than ever when this started, and I felt like I was seeing supernatural moves of God… but now days, I just feel devastated, and like all day long it’s a crying out to God for respite. It feels as though the enemy wants me to give up, to get worn down, and honestly I don’t see God moving or answering my prayers. But yet in the middle of it, every day I try to remember that God is good, that we are blessed, and that I know he has a purpose and plan and will use this for His glory. I really never expected to suffer like this, I thought I would “handle” it better, or be able to just lean happily on the Lord, but it has been much harder than I ever imagined. But I will remain steadfast and believe that God is in control, and he will use it for good.
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The comfortable are not motivated to seek change. Scripture repeatedly talks about the role of suffering in developing our character to be more like the internal world of Christ. James 1 talks about counting it all joy when we face various trial because they produce perseverance leading us to be mature and complete. The “all things” in Rom 8:28 includes the deep suffering that stirs us to be conformed to the image of His son.
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We must see our sin and become uncomfortable with ourselves and it or we will not look to God for the forgiveness and power to change. We also need to see that it is not our own power, but in HIm and HIs power that we can change
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Suffering shakes us from our ‘complacency.’ It disrupts our routine and arouse us to question and seek answers for our suffering. We don’t look for change when life is smooth-sailing, and are controllable.
Suffering do surface the best and the worst of us, be it a Christian or not. Some grew into Christ-likeness, others becomes a victimizer.
