No shortcuts
There are no shortcuts in this Christian life. We gain knowledge, but hopefully it doesn't just stay as knowledge. It should serves us so that we can lean on truth while we go through trials that drive that knowledge to experience. In those times of trial, where the truths are driven into experience, we suffer. In times like this I find that the English language fails me as I try to communicate the hurt to the Lord. It makes me grateful that the Holy Spirit groans for me!
A few months ago the Lord got my attention with a verse in 2 Corinthians. Yes, this is a well-known passage about receiving comfort from the Lord and comforting others with that same comfort, but we stop too short when considering these verses.
2 Cor 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
My flesh cringes at that verse. Why? Because I don't want to believe that comfort comes wrapped in the gift of suffering. Who would pick THAT gift and open it? Honestly no one. But sometimes that gift is opened for us and placed in our hands and we are forced to receive it.
I remember being young in ministry and having the greatest outlook on everything. I had great faith in a great God and was eager to see Him glorified in the lives of those He allowed me to serve. Yes, we were the typical picture of young, having all the answers and zealous! At some point in those early years I was introduced to a hard saying by Tozer, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply."
Ouch.
Oswald Chambers has his own version of this and states "Before God can use a man greatly he must wound him deeply.”
Why do two giants of the Faith speak of this? Because they have learned it and they know there are no shortcuts. There is no app that we can develop for our phones, there is no amount of human wisdom that can be leaned on. This type of pain and suffering must drive us deeper and farther into our God. A place where there are no "answers" sometimes we don't even get "closure" in regards to the pain, but we gain a larger capacity for Him and we can only REALLY know the unlimited, abounding comfort of our Lord through the fire of affliction.
It is in these times of great suffering that we gain great consolation. The wells of our hearts and lives become larger and we are able to hold more of Him. We are made capable of ministering to others BECAUSE we have walked through the trial. Notice whom our consolation abounds through. Christ! (2 Cor 1:5) Nothing else. No one else. Does He not know enough of suffering, willingly enduring and tangibly loving through it? Is He not a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Was He not despised and rejected by men?
Consolation is only known through suffering. It IS the beautifully put-together and lovingly prepared gift that is wrapped inside the ugly trial. We cannot get to it until we walk the long road of pain, though. How I wish there was a shortcut, but we must walk the road that Christ has already traversed.
A few months ago the Lord got my attention with a verse in 2 Corinthians. Yes, this is a well-known passage about receiving comfort from the Lord and comforting others with that same comfort, but we stop too short when considering these verses.
2 Cor 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.
My flesh cringes at that verse. Why? Because I don't want to believe that comfort comes wrapped in the gift of suffering. Who would pick THAT gift and open it? Honestly no one. But sometimes that gift is opened for us and placed in our hands and we are forced to receive it.
I remember being young in ministry and having the greatest outlook on everything. I had great faith in a great God and was eager to see Him glorified in the lives of those He allowed me to serve. Yes, we were the typical picture of young, having all the answers and zealous! At some point in those early years I was introduced to a hard saying by Tozer, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply."
Ouch.
Oswald Chambers has his own version of this and states "Before God can use a man greatly he must wound him deeply.”
Why do two giants of the Faith speak of this? Because they have learned it and they know there are no shortcuts. There is no app that we can develop for our phones, there is no amount of human wisdom that can be leaned on. This type of pain and suffering must drive us deeper and farther into our God. A place where there are no "answers" sometimes we don't even get "closure" in regards to the pain, but we gain a larger capacity for Him and we can only REALLY know the unlimited, abounding comfort of our Lord through the fire of affliction.
It is in these times of great suffering that we gain great consolation. The wells of our hearts and lives become larger and we are able to hold more of Him. We are made capable of ministering to others BECAUSE we have walked through the trial. Notice whom our consolation abounds through. Christ! (2 Cor 1:5) Nothing else. No one else. Does He not know enough of suffering, willingly enduring and tangibly loving through it? Is He not a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Was He not despised and rejected by men?
Consolation is only known through suffering. It IS the beautifully put-together and lovingly prepared gift that is wrapped inside the ugly trial. We cannot get to it until we walk the long road of pain, though. How I wish there was a shortcut, but we must walk the road that Christ has already traversed.