Suffering Successfully预览

Patience in Suffering

I am not going to tell you to pray for patience! That is terrible advice. You might as well expect things to worsen before it gets better!

You need to give yourself a certain amount of Grace when you are suffering.

I hate to cry, and I can do it for any reason. Crying makes me feel terrible. My under-eye bags can last for days. The Bible shows God's intimacy with me when I approach Him this way (Psa. 106:44).

I have said, “I just want one day without crying!” I’m learning it takes time. Everyone’s journey has different lengths, depths, and layers that have to be experienced and embraced in order to successfully get on the other side. The best advice? Don’t fight it.

The key is to keep riding it out! Do not park in the grief and remain there. That’s a dangerous spot for the enemy to gain ground.

Healthy grief in suffering involves allowing the engrafted Word of God to permeate your being and remind you of who you are and “Whose” you are.

If you can tap into these precious moments alone with Jesus and allow Him to flood you with His Presence and Peace, you grow and flourish instead of crumbling.

I have to come to grips with the fact that it is normal and cleansing to let the tears flow while suffering. God is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psa. 34:18)!

Just as much as we need to be patient with ourselves, we must be patient with God’s Timing and Purpose in our suffering. Waiting on God can be HARD! If we trust His Plan in these unwanted, unwelcomed firsts of many in our suffering, we can suffer successfully by allowing God to develop us in these trials (Proverbs 3:5-8).

I had to wait seven years for God’s Hand to move one time on my behalf concerning something many years ago, and it was excruciatingly painful. God wanted me to slow down, to “be still and know” that He is God, that HE is in control (not me), and that He cares about every detail of my life.

Friend, He cares about your details and your struggles and wants to meet you in them. Turn loose of the reigns. He will comfort and strengthen you. Give your suffering the time it deserves for healing.