Short & Sweet: 2 Things To Do When Suffering

Suffering jpg

“Therefore let those who are suffering according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” 1 Peter 4:19

I have done a lot of things while suffering. I’ve whined, complained and cried; the perfect recipe for a pity party with one attendee—me. I have learned these reactions do not alleviate suffering or improve circumstances. In some instances they indicate a very shallow faith in God and His plans life. And, for some reason, these fruitless activities do not make God’s top-ten list of “what to do when you are suffering.” Whining and complaining get you stuck. Just ask the Israelites—they were stuck for 40 years.

While whining and complaining may be our natural inclination they are not God’s best practice when it comes to suffering. He has other ideas. He wants to give us a new normal.

Idea #1: Entrust your soul to God.

The Greek word for entrust used in the verse above is paratithmi. I love the meaning of this word. Paratithmi means to place down to another, to commit to one’s charge, to deposit, to place beside or near another. Imagine taking your soul in your hands and placing it beside God, knowing that He is better able to tend its keeping than you are. Why? Because we would safe ourselves or comfort ourselves right out of many valuable lessons God is trying to teach us. Let’s face it, some lessons are only learned through suffering.

Idea #2: Keep doing good.

What good do we need to keep doing while suffering? Keep the faith. Speak the gospel. Help others. Walk. Confront. Pray. Forgive. Give. Love. Serve. Share. Hope. Dream. Act. Work. Teach. Laugh. Share. Rest. Live.

Life does not stop because of suffering, and life does not have to be perfect to be abundant. God has a beautiful way of hiding blessings amid the pain. You’ll find treasures you’d never acquire apart from the suffering.

Two more considerations:

  1.  First, did you notice sometimes God allows us to suffer? This one is a little hard to swallow.  It’s not that God wants us to suffer or is pleased when we suffer, but because of our nature some things will only be accomplished when we suffer. . What is God teaching you or showing your through suffering?  If you are struggling, a great work is at stake.
  2. Second, did you notice the name for God used in verse 19?  Why Creator? Why not Healer or Avenger? Because amid our suffering, God is busy creating something new, something good, something beautiful. Can we entrust our souls to our Creator not only to bless us with good things but to bless us with good things that have been created by suffering?

Action Points When Suffering:

  1. Do something you enjoy. I remember a painful season in my life of many years ago. I put off doing my favorite hobby because I wanted to wait until the situation was resolved. I wasn’t going to have any fun until things were better. Great idea, right? Do something you enjoy. Have fun by faith!
  2. Do something for another. No act of kindness is too small to be significant. Send the card. Make the call. Say the prayer. Bake the cookies. No matter how you are suffering, someone needs to hear from you.
  3. Do something with Jesus. Add an extra Quiet Time to your day. Ask Him to encourage you very specifically through His word, a song, a radio broadcast.

Remember, when you are suffering, entrust your soul to Him and do good to others.

Life is sweet.

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i pray: broken hearts

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i pray

short podcasts to bring the sacred into your everyday

Do you only have a few minutes for prayer today? You’re in the right place! Try one of our new i pray podcasts. A few minutes is all you need to pray God’s word into any situation by interceding for friends, family, and yourself. 

Today we’re praying about broken hearts. While our emotions may betray us, we can’t always see the state of a person’s heart. Many of us, however, are walking around with broken hearts due to divorce, estrangement, a tragedy, the death of a loved one, or failed relationships. Whether you’re suffering or someone you love is, join Only By Prayer today in praying for the brokenhearted. God can bring about healing. We will be using Psalm 34:18 and Psalm 147:3 to pray.




How Do Christians Fall Into Sin?

temptations,(I originally wrote this post for Ask God Today, and Brenda has graciously let me repost it here!)

Every person, every Christ-follower struggles with sin—whether we recognize it or not. While we tend to think of sin as being hideous and repulsive, which it is, it often masquerades as beauty and light and goodness as shown in 2 Corinthians 11:14. “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” If it feels good, looks good, smells good, it must be good, we reason.

What is clear about sin is that it is instigated by the devil (I John 3:8). God warns us, as he did Cain in Genesis 4:7, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

That sounds direct enough, so why do so many believers become entangled in sin? Well, Satan knows our flaws and finagles circumstances targeted to our weak areas. Let’s consider four specific ways Christ followers can get bogged down in sin.

  1. Busyness is the Bane of our Society

Throughout the Bible, God points out the importance of His children spending time with Him. Jesus modeled this for us. Mark 1:35 says that “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Author Bob Sorge calls prayer “the constant calibration of the soul.”

I love this word picture “calibration of the soul.”

When we pray, God holistically fine tunes us—our souls, our spirits, our minds, and our bodies. He adjusts our thinking to His. Immanuel prayer calls this “thought rhyming.” Surely if Jesus, who was also divine, needed this time, how much more do we? Yet many of us start our days without the calibration of our souls. Why is that?

Frankly, many of us are just too busy. We’re consumed with family and job responsibilities or mesmerized by entertainment. We simply don’t set aside the time. The other day I got up early because I had several pressing deadlines. I remember thinking to myself as I was getting ready to write a post on praying, “I don’t have time for my quiet time today; I better just get started writing!” What is wrong with that attitude? I certainly needed a recalibration at that point!

When we don’t sit at Jesus’ feet on a regular basis, our souls shrivel up and

the lure of the world pulls us away from the call of the Word. We are vulnerable to temptations and attacks because we don’t have our armor on.

  1. Natural Weaknesses

Another reason Christians fall into sin is because of our inherent weaknesses. Just as we each have gifts and strengths, we also have character flaws. In her study Armor of God, Priscilla Shirer tells us we would be wise to know our weaknesses and our strengths, because Satan will attack us in both of these areas.

We need to identify our weaknesses so that we are alert to this area of attack. An area of weakness in my life has been fear, and it took several years for God to heal this. Still today, I keep a close watch on this area in my life.

  1. Oppression from the Enemy

Thirdly, if we don’t overcome our weaknesses, they can turn into strongholds, a prison inside of us that Prisonkeeps others from being able to reach us.

Strongholds don’t develop overnight, but rather over time, from allowing wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong living to go unchecked. The Holy Spirit will always warn us, but we have the choice of whom we listen to. Strongholds that aren’t uprooted can turn into oppression, a state where our mind and emotions are tormented relentlessly by the enemy.

  1. Pride Goeth Before a Fall

Finally, many Christians also fall into sin because of pride. We think “I’ve got this; I can handle this temptation,” when instead we should do as 2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee the evil desires of youth.” Did you notice that God did not say “Stay and fight the temptations of youth (or middle age or old age)”? We are to FLEE from temptations.

Our pride tells us to stay and beat it, but God knows that temptation is dangerous. Do not knowingly put yourself in the path of temptation, and if you find yourself there, get out of Dodge as fast as you can before it gets you. Do not try to rationalize sin. Over the years, the news has spotlighted many Christians who thought they were immune to the lure of sin and paid for it with their ministries, their witnesses, and their families. Don’t be the next one.

Any one of these four situations can cause a believer to wind up in serious sin. But I’d also like to consider one other special circumstance.

A Word About Suffering

A trauma in our lives can leave us vulnerable to falling into sin if we don’t suffer in the right way. This may sound crazy, but there is a healthy way and an unhealthy way to walk through a tragedy in our lives. In the book Joyful Journey Listening to Immanuel, the four authors discuss how “any life event that leads us to feeling alone without help can be experienced as traumatic.” We may believe that God has abandoned us, even though the Bible says He has not.

In his study of the brain, Dr. Karl Lehman states that there are pain-processing pathways in our brains that our traumas need to process through in order for complete healing to occur. God needs to take us through these. If we don’t allow Him to, unresolved pain in our lives causes us to search for relief—often in destructive, addictive ways. I discovered this firsthand while walking through the death of my second child. The first few months I was a mess. I couldn’t eat or sleep, was angry, fought with my husband, and was a lost soul. Finally, I joined a Bible Study Fellowship class and that was the beginning of my healing process.

While, I can’t fully address all the information here (the above book is short and well worth the read), it’s important to suffer well without being estranged from God. A few ways we can reignite our “Relational Circuits” with God in the midst of tragedy is through the practice of interactive gratitude, thought rhyming, and practicing appreciation. The book addresses all of these things in depth.

Summary

We have seen how not spending time with God, natural weaknesses, oppression, pride, and suffering can derail Christ-followers and cause us to fall into deep sin.

The good news is that all of these things are choices we make. (While we don’t choose suffering, we can choose how we respond to it.) God has called us to holiness, and we can choose to live and walk that path. “For we are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit.” Romans 8:9.

Christ has not been stingy with us. In fact, Ephesians 1:3 tells us that He has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm (think about that for a few minutes) to help us in life, which means He has certainly blessed us with the ability to overcome sin.

Action Steps To Be a Sin Overcomer

  1. ActionStepsMake time for Jesus. We’ve already seen the damage that not spending time with Him can cause. Write down a specific goal: I will spend 10 minutes reading the Bible each day. I will learn Interactive Gratitude and practice it four times a weak. I will pray for 15 minutes, and so on. Your goal should be measurable. All of these things will give you an immune booster shot to sin.
  2. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t already know, ask God and a trusted friend to show you what your weaknesses are. Bill Hybels calls weaknesses we aren’t aware of yet our “blind spots.” Write these down in a journal. Then ask God to help devise a plan to shore these up and write down the plan. Consider counseling, mentoring, a Bible study group, an accountability partner, whatever it takes; put in the work to overcome your weaknesses and always be alert in these areas to attacks. Realize Satan will also attack us where we are strong. So identify your strengths and write these down too and be alert to attacks.
  3. Practice taking every thought captive to Christ. Do not let strongholds form in your mind. Write down and memorize Bible verses that speak to your areas of attack. Actually speak God’s truth over your life, your family, and your ministry. God’s word is alive and active and sharper than a two-edged sword. It is much stronger than the enemy, and it will protect your mind.

Step up, believer, and stand firm in the faith. God is faithful to finish what He has started in you.

What are your thoughts? Please share any ideas you have on overcoming sin.

 




The Hidden Blessing of Suffering

Hard times are just hard.

We can’t avoid them. As a matter of fact, the more I learn about suffering, the more I realize there is purpose to our suffering.

Even benefits.Cross Flourish

Even blessing.

Only God can do that — give us beauty for ashes. New life from death. Healing from hurting. Often it takes a long time to reap the goodness from the suffering. But hold on. Don’t give up. There is an end to the season of suffering. God promises that we may weep in the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Please open the Sway Bible study below for encouragement and help when suffering.

He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. Psalm 91:15

 

Please comment below on what encouraged you the most from your study time.

Thank you.

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Copyright 2015.




To-Do List by Mary Kane

 

I am a list maker. I like to start out my day with a list of tasks I need to complete. I feel great satisfaction in accomplishing and crossing items off my to-do list. God is a list maker as well, the 10 Commandments is perhaps His greatest to-do list.  In 1 Peter 4, God gives us another list: four things to do when we are suffering.

Please take a moment and go before God in prayer. Confess to Him any sin, and ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit. Please read 1 Peter 4:13-16, 19.

In verse 13, what is our first to-do when we are suffering?

 

How deeply are we to rejoice?

 

The word for rejoice used in verse 13 is chairo, which means, “to be well, to thrive, to be glad.” It also means, “let the hope of future blessedness bring you joy.” So while we are suffering we must focus forward, knowing God has a great blessing for us. To the extent we have suffered, we will be blessed!

Verse 16 names another suffering to-do. What is it?

 

The word glorify means “to praise, to honor, to make renowned.” If God wants us to praise Him through our suffering, there must be some thing praiseworthy in our suffering.  If we can’t see anything praise-worthy at the moment, let’s praise by faith.

Verse 18 names two more to-do’s when suffering. Please name them.

 

We are to trust God is good, and continue to do good. The temptation when suffering is to become self-focused. When our attention is completely riveted on our pain, it intensifies. Doing good brings healing to our souls, encourages others, and glorifies God.

Name one item from the to-do list you will do and how you will accomplish it.

 

Thank you for joining me today for Bible study!

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1 Thessalonians A Life of Faith, Part 6: The Blessing of Suffering

DOve JPEG 10 edtGod has given us many blessings, the greatest of which is the gift of life.  We can choose to live a life of selfishness and greed, following after our own desires, or we can live a blessings:  grace, joy, peace, love, fruit, ministry, and yes,  suffering.

At first, it may seem as if suffering and blessing have no point of commonality, but as we shall learn, suffering leads to blessing if we will only trust the Lord.  The present hardship you are experiencing can be re-purposed by God into blessing. Blessing from suffering … what kind of God has that kind of power? The Great I AM.  Living blessing of suffering.

Please click on the link below to down load Part 6 of A Life of Faith.

A Life of Faith, Part 6: The Blessing of Suffering