fortunate components of life, but they are inescapable, nonetheless. For the people in the world who do not have Christ to rely on, these struggles can be significantly more difficult. Believers, however, have a bounty of strength to draw from- God’s strength. When followers of Christ struggle, they have an infinite wealth of strength that is accessible at any time. However, for a Christian to be strong in the presence of struggles they must first know from whom they draw their strength. Because of the struggles and trials that all people will face, it is important for believers to understand that in order to find a deep-rooted sense of strength, they must grow in their faith when times are easy, draw near to God when times are hard, and rely on God for restoration after a season of pain has ended.
Even before a believer endures a particular trial, he must first be strong in God so that he may be ready to face the trials that are a part of life. In Ephesians 6:10 and 13, God urges believers to “…be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power… Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Holy Bible). In the original Hebrew, the word used for “strong” in verse 10 is “chazaq” which also means “to fortify”. God is encouraging believers to strengthen and fortify themselves using Him and the tools He provides, so that when struggles come along, believers are equipped to take on challenges, and grow from them. William MacDonald said, “We are flanked by formidable foes; we must take up the armor of God, that we may be able to withstand when the conflict reaches its fiercest intensity, and still be found standing when the sm...
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...imes, must possess a strength that can only be found in God. God wants His children to arm and fortify themselves with His power, so that in the midst of a struggle, believers may be able to lean into Him and draw strength from His presence and His promises of restoration. Believers have a unique stronghold that nonbelievers do not. Christians can rely on God and fellow believers for strength and comfort as well. In this fallen and imperfect world, trials and painful times are inevitable. However, with a strength drawn from God and His promises, believers are able to withstand trials and not be moved. Only God can truly support, empower, strengthen, and comfort His children when they struggle; if a believer bases their faith and strength in God, they can endure the worst that life can throw at them, and still be found standing strong and firm at the end of the day.
Pastor Keith Loy reminds us that life is a battle and its war time. “One standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer, and a group of three is even better” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Jesus said it is going to get worse but in the end… We Win. His final statement was to be as tough as nails, not in life, but in God.
Many people who have succeeded in life have faced hardships. Hardships give people the opportunity to overcome difficulties and came back stronger. That is why hardships can strengthen a person.
Sometimes our appreciation and trust in God becomes conditioned on how well things are going for us. When a Christian suffers, they assume that there must be sin in their life. But suffering is not always a result of sin as we see with Job. In most cases, those who are sinners suffer a little while those who are good suffer much. Many people see this as a stumbling block for Christian and ask why God allows suffering. Instead of us asking ourselves “why me” we might be better off asking “why not me.” God often uses suffering to produce righteous character in believers. Sometimes He wants those who suffer to be more dependent upon Him. It may be that He is trying to get our attention. We might even be sinning; however, we cannot always equate suffering with sin in those who love the Lord as we see with Job’s
Believing and having faith over sickness, suffering, and rejection formed a close relationship with Christ while enduring the suffering and victory over Christ being crucified. Because of this, Christians didn’t live a life of chaos but in a life that constantly reflected a love and understanding for them and...
People have turned to God amidst suffering for thousands of years. Even today, it is quite common to hear that someone will be “prayed for” during times of hardship or struggle. Despite all of this, most people struggle when confronted with the image of God in suffering. People see God as a transcendent being who wields complete control yet allows heinous acts to occur. This false image of God can confuse people and create an enmity between them and God. However, people must understand that God is powerless in suffering. Although He cannot do anything to prevent suffering, God is omnipresent in suffering, giving people opportunities to show things such as love, empathy, or compassion.
The book of Job in the Old Testament explores many questions we ask ourselves as human beings. Why do the good suffer? How can we comfort someone who is hurting? Does our sin bring us suffering? How do we keep our faith when times get hard? These are just a few that came into my mind while reading Job. We see human suffering on a daily basis. All we have to do is turn on the news and we are shown so many stories of human suffering that it makes you ask the question “If God is so good and just, why do so many people suffer?” The story of Job shows us that we should keep our faith when faced with the worst that God can throw at us. When we are faced with the challenges of life where does our hope lie? It is inevitable that we will face challenges or suffering in this life. It’s not a question of if, but of when. What we put our hope or our faith in will determine how we handle the suffering life brings our way.
Christianity is more than just a philosophy or “crutch” in life. I became a Christian back in 2008 and I’ve been through a lot since then. I can say that without God and my faith I would not have made it through those tough years. Being Christian is more than dependency and using God as a “crutch” in life, it’s making the choice to live morally for God and worshipping him and accepting that you cannot do everything on your own. Even entering college has been tough but my dependency on God has gotten me through and I know that with God by my side anything is possible. “Our desire for a personal relationship of God is strong, but we usually fail to recognize that desire for what it is” (Keller 1). I’ve learned that I can’t blame everyone and everything for my problems. I can’t even blame myself because by setting high standards I’m setting myse...
The concept of suffering plays an important role in Christianity, regarding such matters as moral conduct, spiritual advancement and ultimate destiny. Indeed an emphasis on suffering pervades the Gospel of Mark where, it can be argued, we are shown how to "journey through suffering" (Ditzel 2001) in the image of the "Suffering Son of Man" (Mark 8:32), Jesus Christ. Although theologians have suggested that Mark was written to strengthen the resolve of the early Christian community (Halpern 2002, Mayerfeld 2005), the underlying moral is not lost on a modern reader grappling with multifarious challenges regarding faith in the face of suffering. In his article "A Christian Response to Suffering", William Marravee (1987) describes suffering as an "experience over which we men and women continue to stumble and fall". The way we view God is crucial to the way we view suffering according to Marravee, who delineates the disparity between a view of God as an ‘outsider’ and the biblical image of God – where God is an ‘insider’ who suffers with us in our struggle. This essay seeks to explain the Christian view of suffering and the purpose suffering can have in our lives.
While Seneca and writers in the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible disagree about the reasons why higher beings allow humans to suffer, they all agree that suffering and hardships are always beneficial and advantageous to those who face them. In his writings in the New Testament, Paul echoes Seneca’s belief that “disaster is virtue’s opportunity” (“On Providence,” 37). According to the writers, suffering is, in fact, a necessary part of living a good life. If we do not know what suffering is, how can we know when we are happy? Without hardships, life becomes an emotionless string of connected events; in other words, it becomes purposeless.
Testimonies of how you stayed faithful even when times were tough. Moments you will be able to look back and be thankful to God for them. Those moments will increase your faith and you will be able to trust God because of what happened in the past. Your testimonies are great to edify yourself but even better to edify other people. Using your experience, you will be able to encourage people in their relationship with God. If we look at Daniel in the Bible, we know that he was a good man who feared God, yet God allowed him to be sentenced to death in a lion’s den. Daniel was saved by God so it’s hard to call it a suffering, but still we see that God used this situation to show his might to the king Darius and his nation –“I issues a decree that in every part of my kingdom people must fear and reverence the God of Daniel. For he is the living God and he endures forever; his kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” Dave Earley says it so well, “God’s ultimate plan behind all of His activities on this planet is to present humanity with a clear testimony of who He truly is and what He
According to Sharpe (2015), “when truly deep suffering comes into their lives, Christians will often pray to God for healing or rescue” (para. 2). Based on this fundamental belief in the Christian worldview, it is imperative that every human encounter suffering as this brings a person closer in their relationship with God. The Christian worldview holds a belief that God has a purpose for everything that happens in a person’s life, whether it is joy and happiness, pain and suffering, and life and death. This can be seen throughout the Bible such as “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11, New International Version), and in Ecclesiastes 3 “A Time for Everything.” These core Christian beliefs should cause a person to look past the suffering that he or she is facing, and try to see what kind of positives can come from the current suffering that a person is
...rld of overwhelming circumstances. He will not set me up to fail, nor will He be deaf to my cries, or hesitant to catch me when I fall. When I doubt in His plan He is quick to forgive and understand. When I place all my trust and faith in Him, I am able to move the mountains of adversity that oppose me, and walk on the waves of doubt instead of drown in them. I find peace in knowing that my God is for me, and nothing that rises against me will stand for long. When I put my trust in the Lord there is no need for my heart to be troubled because the One who holds my heart in His hands has conquered the world and deprived it of power to harm me. He is the mightiest of all conquerors, and I was made in His likeness. It is in Him where find perfect peace, an everlasting hope, and infectious joy and it is in my weakness and by His strength that I too become a conqueror.
At one point or another in one’s life you are faced with God, eye to eye and you know it. You can feel the Holy Spirit’s presence, like a humming sound that’s too low to hear, but it’s there and you can feel it, a feeling that you are not alone. For some, this feeling lasts for eternity, and for others God works within them again and again because the Lord’s love is persistent. The feeling I had came and went, for it was not strong enough as a child. But now, I am the strongest I have ever been.
B. See how God helps? It is in our distress, when we feel weak, the Spirit prays for us. It is all about trust and dependence on God. God will work things out. So stand firm in truth that God assigns no blame, truly forgiven of sins. No condemnation for those in Jesus (Rom.8:1 ff.) So the Spirit of life dwells in all true believers and it is His Spirit that continues to help. Apart from God we have no life.