Suffering

Romans 5:3-5 "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

I was reading my Bible tonight and stopped here. It's pretty comforting. Not that we will suffer...but that suffering isn't the end. We have a hope that no other has because we are suffering for a purpose, suffering by choice, whereas those who still belong to the world suffer for themselves, with no hope in sight.

Every time there are hard times or you seem to be suffering more than other people, remember that Christ told us we would suffer for His name's sake. We weren't promised a perfect life here on earth, but we are told we will have a perfect life in heaven one day.

Besides being a God of justice, power, wrath, mercy and grace...he is a God of love. So even though we go through so many "unbearable" things, God is right there with us. We often suffer more than we have to because we try to handle everything on our own. We WILL have a hard life, especially if we've given it to Christ, but we don't have to go through it alone.

The comfort many people wish for is right there for the taking...yet they refuse to see it.
Have you chosen to suffer for Christ?