Suffering – Daily Journal
1 Peter 5:10 ESV
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Romans 8:18 ESV
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 5:3-5 ESV
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 8:28 ESV
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
James 1:2-4 ESV
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
Today I am interested not only in suffering (problems, adversity, stress, hurt, blocks) but how I and others react to suffering. I know there is no way to get around it. It’s everywhere. Can “work” be replaced with suffering in some cases? Knowing I cannot avoid suffering, then learning to work through the suffering has to be the way to go for me. Avoiding the work just does not feel good.
This is how I try to focus my thoughts when faced with suffering. It’s not easy to take on the mindset of “rejoicing” or “This is good” or even “what will I learn from this.” I always think of the “mindset” or action Arnold Schwarzenegger said he used when training. He would simply smile when the pain set in.
To me this about sums it up… Romans 5:3-5 .”..we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.“
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