Tag: suffering

Colossians 1:24 ” Now I rejoice in what was suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the Church.”

It may seem counter-intuitive, but we are not only called to suffer for the sake of Christ, but suffer well.  Now man’s way of suffering is to demand why, blame others or turn our backs on God.  But suffering well for Christ starts with changing our perspective, by looking at our suffering through God’s eyes not ours.  And when we do this, we can then see the purpose,  practice obedience, and persevere victoriously through the suffering.  The Apostle Paul’s theology of suffering well was this:  it produced joy in seeing the Gospel Message advanced, it exalted Christ, and it increased our faith.

Psalm 88:18 ” You have taken my companions and loved ones from me; the darkness is my closest friend.”

One of the realities of life is that we will lose people close to us.  And as we get older and older it happens more often.  We look around, and all our beloved friends and family are gone…and left in their place is this huge void.  This Scripture actually reminded me of the first line of an old Simon and Garfunkel song, “Hello darkness, my old friend I’ve come to talk with you again…”  And if you read this entire Psalm, you’ll recognize that dark place as grieving and loss.  But within this darkness there’s also the hope of God, and the Writer of this Psalm knows this is where he needs to be.