My flesh and my heart may grow weak, but God always protects my heart and gives me stability. Psalm 73:26 New English Translation

“Do you view afflictions, trials, and sufferings as things to be avoided, or as the greatest opportunities to project the fragrance of a transformed life.” Quote By~John Blanchard

Grow Through The Difficulty

Difficult times that we are “growing through” in this season of life can take over us if we let them steal our gaze away from Jesus. A lot of people are suffering in their own individual ways. Suffering takes a different face for all of us, but we all have it in our lives from time to time. God’s sovereignty will outlast our suffering, we need to cling to Him and dig our life roots deeply in His Kingdom.

“But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Quote By~C.S. Lewis

Kingdom Perspective ~ Eases The Pain

God has a kingdom prescription to ease our pain. This is His prescription for our suffering. He wants our faith to stay active in whole hearted belief as we suffer and grow through what His Will has sovereignly and purposefully allowed to touch our lives. Suffering does not diminish or dim the power and light of God in our spirit. We do. We let despair sit us down in darkness and doubt hold us there. God wants to change that up right now.

“We are responsible for all our actions. We must seek God in prayer, act with prudence at all time, and trust God to work out His good purposes in our lives.” Author~ Jerry Bridges

Get Up ~ Shake Defeat Off

Get up. Shake off that defeated attitude, kick it out of your soul. God is with you and Almighty God is for you. Our creator God is faithful to us and has been faithful to us since our creation. Don’t give in to the lies, doubts and fears of the enemy. No assumption is good, no presumption is real and no rationalization is true, all lead to doubt. Trump them with truth, with the promises of God and cast them out of play in your mind. The moment you cry out to God is the moment that His great purposes come into playing forward His miraculous say so. The challenge may be great, but the God purpose inside of the challenge is totally greater than the challenge will ever be. God is Sovereign over You and His Sovereignty is always working for your good. Live like you believe God and His Promises.

“If when you become a Christian you write a big red “LOSS” across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ. In other words, what sustains Paul in suffering the loss of all things is the confidence that in his losing precious things in the world he is gaining something more precious—Christ.” Author~ John Piper

Simply-Significantly ~ God Is Always Good

Basically God is good. You must believe this. This is a basic, foundational structure to our faith. God is good. We allow the worldly viewpoint, the thing we “see” to disrupt our foundation of truth. We only see in part. Remember this, remember that there is a kingdom perspective available. Your worldly viewpoint is not the end of truth, it is the beginning of the path to a kingdom perspective. Don’t stop with your viewpoint, carry on, walk past it, because there is a better view, there is a kingdom perspective. Get on your knees, bow your heart before God, let go of everything you have predefined. Pray for the discernment you need to see from God’s point of view, to see through His kingdom perspective. God is good and His purposes are at work in the unseen towards a good endgame.

“Must you continue to be your own cross? No matter which way God leads you, you change everything into bitterness by constantly brooding over everything. For the love of God, replace all this self-scrutiny with a pure and simple glance at God’s goodness.” Quote By~Saint Jeanne Chantal

Are You Dead Ended ~ Follow The Way-Maker God

A worldly viewpoint dead ends, but a kingdom perspective stays alive in the hope that your faith activates. When you are suffering, it is not a time to shut down your faith by focusing on a worldly viewpoint. There is more to suffering than meets the eye. All suffering is redeemable by Jesus Christ. Where is Jesus in your picture, where is your kingdom perspective. Get one. Get down on your knees and pray, cry out to God for the flip side of the coin to your worldly viewpoint, for a kingdom perspective. Don’t stay dead ended in your worldly viewpoint, there is so much more. Don’t miss it. Shake off all things world and put on Christ.

“Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine. While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.” Author~Tim Keller

Active Faith ~ Active Wisdom ~ Active Love

We need to have an active faith. Yes the Sovereign Will of God is prevalent and nothing will thwart it, nothing will stop it, but that does not mean we sit around moping over the apparent sovereign will of God in our lives that we find hard to swallow. The Sovereign Will of God goes down easier when we actively cling to the Infinite love of God and the wisdom of God that comes in the form of His truth and promises. The Sovereign Will of God is never separated from the love and wisdom of God. These three go together, they are a three strand cord that can’t be separated by any evil intention of harm. They are a strong foundation for those who are suffering, who are growing through hard times. Suffering does not separate us from God. We are never separated from God’s love and wisdom, never.

“Jesus lost all his glory so that we could be clothed in it. He was shut out so we could get access. He was bound, nailed, so that we could be free. He was cast out so we could approach. And Jesus took away the only kind of suffering that can really destroy you: that is being cast away from God. He took so that now all suffering that comes into your life will only make you great. A lump of coal under pressure becomes a diamond. And the suffering of a person in Christ only turns you into somebody gorgeous.” Author ~Tim Keller

Be Responsible ~ Act Prudently

The Sovereign Will of God calls us to a prudent responsibility. You must not lose your active, prudent faith during suffering. We are responsible to act in prayerful faith, not to sit in the darkness of despair and hopelessness. Be responsible to the Sovereign will of God and let the goodness of God raise up a standard of righteousness in the face of your suffering. God is Sovereign over you. He has allowed this suffering for a reason beyond your understanding. Trust Him. You know God, you know that He is good. Go with what you know and trust with an active, responsible, prudent faith that acts out with belief. Step out in belief, an active truth that stands strong with hope in God, Who knows what He is doing, whose intention is always for good.

“We can read in Isaiah 48:10 that “…I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” The meaning of this verse makes it clear that pain and suffering have a way of bringing our strengths and weaknesses to the surface. When the dross floats to the surface, God skims it off; he purifies and refines us to be the radiant bride of Christ. We read the words of Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” Did God abandon His Son in His hour of need? We find the answer three days later—God raised Him from the dead! Because of this promise, we have hope for our future.” Quote By: Joni Eareckson

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 | NIV

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10 | NIV

Dear ones, don’t be surprised when you experience your trial by fire. It is not something strange and unusual, but it is something you should rejoice in. In it you share the Anointed’s sufferings, and you will be that much more joyful when His glory is revealed. If anyone condemns you for following Jesus as the Anointed One, consider yourself blessed. The glorious Spirit of God rests on you. But none of you should ever merit suffering like those who have murdered or stolen, meddled in the affairs of others or done evil things. But if you should suffer for being a Christian, don’t think of it as a disgrace, as it would be if you had done wrong. Praise God that you’re permitted to carry this name.
1 Peter 4:12-16 | The Voice

Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. Be aware that the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested [in your faith], and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful to the point of death [if you must die for your faith], and I will give you the crown [consisting] of life.
Revelation 2:10 | Amplified Bible

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
Philippians 3:10 | NIV

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.
Isaiah 53:10-11 | NLT

If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him? Can anyone be so bold as to level a charge against God’s chosen? Especially since God’s “not guilty” verdict is already declared. Who has the authority to condemn? Jesus the Anointed who died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God where He pleads on our behalf. So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing. As the psalm says, On Your behalf, our lives are endangered constantly; we are like sheep awaiting slaughter.
Romans 8:32-36 | Voice

That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 | NLT

Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, But the Lord rescues him from them all.
Psalm 34:19 | Amplified

The breaking of the alabaster box and the anointing of the Lord filled the house with the odor, with the sweetest odor. Everyone could smell it. Whenever you meet someone who has really suffered; been limited, gone through things for the Lord, willing to be imprisoned by the Lord, just being satisfied with Him and nothing else, immediately you scent the fragrance. There is a savor of the Lord. Something has been crushed, something has been broken, and there is a resulting odor of sweetness. –Watchman Nee

The Flip Side Of The Coin

God will show up in the middle of our suffering (no doubt about it) and become the saving solution that brings hope as we wait on Him, trusting wholly-holy in Him. Jesus is the Word of life, His Words are alive and powerful and will strongly remind us of His Sovereignty over our suffering. The living Word of God has so much life and much life to speak into us to enrich our suffering with the hidden treasures of God’s Kingdom. As we get into God’s Word and His Word gets into our soul, He will remind us strongly about His Sovereignty over us and how we can trust Him with an active trust. God wants us to have a powerful trust that takes responsibility and prudently acts out in faith, trumping all doubt. Listen up to this song today called “Sovereign Over Us” by Aaron Keys and may God Almighty speak to your heart in that miraculous way that only He can as He holds you in His powerful healing hands and you begin to see the flip side of the coin of suffering, God’s kingdom perspective, instead of the dead end say so of a worldly viewpoint. Exchange your fear, discouragement, and despair for a hope in God that will endure, that will stand the test of time. Be so. Believing in Jesus Christ, trusting in His Sovereignty over you and experiencing His goodness. Author~KimberlyMac

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

I hope you enjoyed this meal on SUFFERING. I am a prayer mentor, therefore this will be the prayer I pray up this year. I am hoping huge you share this with others and it mentors them in that special way only God can, so we all can walk in and experience God’s JOY. Feed Your Soul Daily At The Bridegroom’s Café. I highly suggest you purchase a copy of The Bridegroom’s Voice and take a journey with Jesus that will change it UP for you in that special way only God can. God bless you MUCH, KimberlyMac