“Laura-Lee, why must I suffer so much physically?!”
Have you ever prayed in accordance with Romans 12:1?
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to OFFER YOUR BODY as a LIVING SACRIFICE,, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
A “Living Sacrifice”. How did you think that was going to pan out, except with suffering?
I often relate that verse to Abraham sacrificing his beloved, only son, Isaac, on an altar because God asked him to.
I've heard many, many sermons about that moment from Abraham's perspective (I suppose because most Ministers are usually Dads and are relating to Abraham), but I've always wondered about it from Isaac's point of view.
At some point his Dad had to have told him what was going on. Isaac didn't make a run for it, yet instead he submitted to both his earthly Father's will and their Heavenly Father's will. I'm not surprised that God draws a veil on that portion of the event. Could any of us truly comprehend the agony of it?
But I do know Isaac had his hands bound, was laid on an altar of wood ALIVE and knew he was about to DIE at his Father's hand.
His father, Abraham, gave up what mattered most to him (Isaac) and Isaac trusted his father right into Death and even beyond.
Can we do the same?
Suffering is never an easy path whether we submit to it or it is inflicted on us. Many times in the midst of it I don't understand and question “why”, things have to be this way, but I always end up praying,
“Jesus, when this is over, promise me things will be okay between us again, because I couldn't live without you.”
Also, keep this in mind. YOU are sharing a portion of HIS suffering, He isn't sharing yours. You are the “Bride of Christ” and if you take this seriously, then you need to walk along beside Him, like the wife of the “suffering Messiah” must do.
Or, you could just take back your Romans 12 prayer and be satisfied with a tiny, lesser faith.🤷♀️ A self-centered faith that lacks depth or understanding and has no compassion for others who suffer because you've never walked it yourself.
It takes intense suffering to be able to say these same things as Job.
“Oh, that my words were recorded,
that they were written on a scroll,
that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead,
or engraved in rock forever!
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me.”
Job 19:23-27
Job had enough faith to look beyond his own physical suffering to KNOW, with surety, that some day God would RESURRECT his physical body, which BTW is the exact same thing Abraham believed God would do for Isaac, revealed when he said,
“We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
Genesis 22:5
Abraham was going to kill Isaac and burn him on an altar but STILL believed God would Resurrect him.
It's the same thing Martha believed, even after spending days watching her sick brother die.
“Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?’”
“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
I find it fascinating that what Job wanted was a record kept of his suffering and his ultimate proclamation of his life. (It is doubly hard to suffer if you believe you are in it alone.) But God answered that “simplified” prayer of Job and has magnified it more times than Job could ever have imagined. Job has become the epitome of honorable, Godly suffering all through these THOUSANDS of years of human history.
Who will be blessed by the Testimony of your suffering, even if it seems nobody cares or notices in the Here and Now❓️
“Then the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 1:8
“The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.”
Job 42:12
The Truth with Love,
Always Laura-Lee
