Trusting God in Suffering
1 Peter 2:23 People insulted [Jesus], but he did not insult them back. He suffered, but he did not threaten anyone. No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly.
Suffering at the hands of injustice is pretty much as bad as it gets. Not only is our innate sense of justice deeply offended, but at the same time we’re hurting. The injustice kind of rubs salt in your wounds. And hurts. Man it hurts!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but trusting God is easy when the going’s good. But the moment the going gets tough, trusting God is one of the hardest things you can ever do, because the evidence of your difficult circumstances seems to shout in your face, that God can’t be trusted. I mean, if He loved you, He wouldn’t let you suffer like this.
Surely God can wave a magic wand and make it all better – He loves me after all!
That’s our train of logic, when we’re faced with suffering. And that’s kind of a pity, because it’s right then, that we really need our faith to kick in and get us through.
It seems to me that part of the problem is in the way that we look at suffering. We see it is a completely abnormal state, from which we should be delivered – immediately!!
And when someone else causes us to suffer, we see it as our God-given right to abuse the abuser, to threaten the one who’s causing us pain. To kick and scream and shout. Right?
1 Peter 2:23 People insulted [Jesus], but he did not insult them back. He suffered, but he did not threaten anyone. No, he let God take care of him. God is the one who judges rightly.
When Jesus was accused, tried, unjustly convicted, beaten and nailed to a cross … He didn’t say one word in His defence. Not a thing. Instead, He trusted His life into His Father’s hands, right there, in the middle of extreme suffering.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Doretta Wildes
Great lesson, And since it’s only going to get much worse for Christians, very timely.
Great lesson, And since it’s only going to get much worse for Christians, very timely.