PAIN AND SUFFERING

Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad-for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you. "
1 Peter 4:12-14 (NIV)

---

A bar of steel worth $5 is worth about 10 dollars when wrought into horseshoes. If made into needles it is worth about $350. if into penknife blades it is worth close to $32000; if into springs for watches it is worth $250 thousand. The more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater its value.

Let's be real, none of us likes or enjoys the process of going through the fire. We all love the polished and greater value part. We do not want to go through the hammering, passing through the fire and being beaten into shape. We do not see that as a blessing in disguise, rather we assume that when we are going through the fire then God is not pleased with us and He has abandoned us.

Think about this, God was pleased with Job and He was showing him off to the devil. What happened after that, was pain and suffering. The enemy was given the permission to test Job and he came in and killed all his children, wiped out all Jobs animals and he even went as far as inflicting Jobs body with boils. Talk about God showing you off.

Rarely do we hear sermons on the whole issue of suffering and going through the fire which are part and parcel of the Christian walk. In this day and age we focus on the harvest and the benefits that come with it. Every other message we hear is about blessings and planting a seed to get the blessing. The interesting thing even as we talk about planting seeds and getting the blessing, we leave out the whole process that the seed goes through in order to bear fruit. 

We all have seeds of greatness in us and for those God given seeds to bear fruit then the seeds have to be buried and broken, going through the process of death before they can raise again bearing much fruit. Our example is Christ Jesus who went through pain and suffering but after all that He came out shinning bringing many into the family of God.

My prayer is that we will learn to look at the Christian walk holistically embracing the blessings and the suffering as well. May we learn to be silent, still and longsuffering because those who suffer the most are capable of yielding more. It is through the pain and suffering that we are built up and God gets the most out of us for His glory and the blessing of others. Peace, be still and know that He is God.