Tracy
12/8/2018
6:45:53 PM | |  | |
STRENGTH FOR TODAY BY SHARON BROYLES
THE GIFT OF SUFFERING
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
J.B. Phillips translates this passage as "When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don't resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!"
Is it truly possible to view the trial of suffering as a gift? Charles Colson thinks so. Ex-convict and former right-hand man to President Richard Nixon, he was stripped of money, power, prestige, and his freedom in the aftermath of Watergate. He has written since that he found "a far greater gain: knowing Christ."
Joni Eareckson Tada thinks so, too. Since losing most of her physical abilities in a diving accident, Joni has often said in print and in person that her paralysis has drawn her close to God and provided a spiritual healing which she "wouldn't trade for a hundred active years on my feet."
Everything about life is a gift, even pain. God, however, does not dole out diabetes to one and arthritis to another like Santa at Christmas. In God's loving desire for my wholeness, I can consider this illness pure joy because He exchanges my suffering for hope.
As much as I choke on the words, dear God, today
I will thank You for the gift of illness and all
the other gifts You allow into my life to ensure
that I am "not lacking anything."
|
