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A desire to begin regularly blogging again has very much been on my heart throughout the past month. Our son who was experiencing so much pain a year ago has—praise God!—healed so much. Walking with the Lord through the pain, the unknowns, the detachment, the trust, and even the freedom He showed me in the past year has left me with so much I want to write about! But it also has left me with a very full plate and little time to pursue what is on my heart in that respect. As I have been pondering how to try to jump back in, so to speak, it occurred to me that perhaps I could share something I wrote for work, something I felt so blessed to write. It came in response to someone who reached out to us with a question: Can suffering be a gift? Yes, yes, yes.
What I find so beautiful about his question is how—simply by reaching out with an honest question on his heart, by being vulnerable—this man touched my heart so greatly by allowing me to write this. And as we heard from people who also were grateful for his question, I realized that he had allowed them to find strength as well. There is so much strength in humility. In our humility, we may often feel alone, but we never truly are. Look at how our Lord wore a crown of thorns, and how even He allowed Veronica, Mary, and Simon of Cyrene to help Him carry His unfathomable burden.
We should not fear suffering, because the Lord meets us there. There is richness in suffering. And, let us never forget, there is also the resurrection.
To anyone who may read this, may God bless you and strengthen you in whatever suffering you may be facing.
Below is my response to the man's question. It links back to the blog post in which this originally appeared.
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We recently received the following question. One of our staff members offered to respond to it, and we thought it would be of interest and help to our supporters. This answer originally appeared in the July 2017 Renewal Ministries’ newsletter.
Q: I recently received a word that “suffering is a gift.” Please discern this for me. I think it’s true but it scares me a little. I’ve always prayed for less suffering.
A: Yes, suffering is a gift. A difficult one to receive, but one that can yield great fruit in our lives, if we unite it to Jesus and walk the road of suffering with Him.
If we face our suffering without the Lord—if it does not bring us to the point of seeing our true dependence on Him—then it will not bear the same fruit. It would still be a gift, but it would be one we were not willing to accept and let make us more like Him.
It’s understandable that suffering scares you. But when you seek Him in your suffering, and when you can try to see His goodness, even in life’s sorrow, you can begin to see how He is bigger than even our worst hurts, how He pours His very heart into our brokenness and pain, and how He never leaves us alone, but does indeed carry us. When you are suffering, there are days when Scripture will be no more than words on a page. But if you continue to turn to those Words each day, you will find comfort in them. You walk through one trial with Him, and you see His faithfulness. Then, when the next trial comes, you will have less fear and more trust. And slowly, when you see His faithfulness time and time again in the struggles life inevitably brings, trust will replace the fear in your heart. Try praying the words on the Divine Mercy image: “Jesus, I trust in You!” Add to it: “Help me to trust more!” And He will.
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