“And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Your suffering is over.’”(Mark 5:34 NLT)
I wish none of us had to suffer. I know that afflictions can lead to spiritual growth, but right now, I just don’t want to witness any more pain. My mind is full of questions:
--Can we be free of suffering in this life? Or do we have to wait until we reach heaven?
--Can trust in God detach us from the pain--enabling us to be less miserable?
--Is it possible to attain peace in the midst of adversity if we are confident in Christ?
--Can those who suffer eventually develop strong faith-muscles that increase their endurance and resilience?
I sense there is some sort of link between faith, trust, peace, healing, wholeness, contentment, and joy. Yet, I can’t seem to connect the dots to get the complete picture.
Lord, Your plans and strategies are incomprehensible to us; yet, we are confident that they are good. We trust that you will heal us and make us whole. And I trust that You will continue teaching us the things You want us to know about suffering and how to connect the dots.
In answer to your four questions, as someone who has lived a couple of decades longer than you have, if you will permit me to jump in, I can answer Yes. Yes. Yes and Yes.
ReplyDeleteI can speak personally, since everyone's journey on Earth is God's plan for us, whether we can see the reasoning at the time, it always becomes clearer in hindsight.
It took the terminal illness of both my Mother and Father, but moreso my Father to finally get this. Both situations were totally out of my control, but as their daughter, it was my duty and moreso need to comfort them, even though I felt broken inside at the thought of never being able to talk to them again. I knew at the end of both of their lives, both of which I spent many hours by their side, I finally came to realize I had to let my ego go and let God take over because it was His plan, not mine. After their deaths I realized that because of both of their deaths, they changed me and who I was and wanted to be as a person. I decided I was going to try my best to never let Ego be the reason I did anything anymore. I needed to know that God was always going to be there for me and as I spent many hours in the hospital chapel praying for God to take over, answers were whispered to me through dreams, premonitions, and facing hard cold reality facts and doing something about them.
Thanks for sharing your personal experiences. It is reassuring.
ReplyDeleteI hope so. It is all and individual experience that becomes personal and hard to put into words. Trust. It is the word. Learning to or not to. I personally trust the Supreme Being, no matter what name it is given.
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