“Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (I Peter 4:14)
A.W. Tozer once said, “I don’t want the world to define God for me. I want the Holy Spirit to reveal God to me”. In the uncertainty of our times, we tend to let circumstances or “reality” define God in our lives.
Mark Batterson writes “One of two things will happen over time. Either your theology will conform to your reality, and your expectations will get smaller and smaller until you hardly believe God for anything. Or your reality will conform to your theology, and your expectations will get bigger and bigger until you believe God for absolutely everything”! Suffering can be a “tough reality,” but suffering is an essential process in the making of a man of God. To quote from the great Charles Spurgeon, “The work of God’s Holy Spirit begins with bruising. …. the fallow ground must be plowed up; the hard heart must be broken; the rock must be split apart.”
The benefits of suffering are many. Here are but a few for your consideration:
• Growth
• Change
• Transformation
• Courage to make change
• Mental clarity
• Freedom
In times of suffering, God is working in your life! “Blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
Tim Lloyd, Ph.D., D. Min.
