God can deliver

Isaiah 43:2-3
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

The trials of this life can be overwhelming. We turn to all sorts of fixes to try and get out of, or at the least, ignore them: entertainment, drink, sex, money, power and even self.

God's promise is not to take away the trials of life, instead, he promises to experience the trials with you, and uphold you through them. His promise is that, ultimately, you will not be overcome by them.

But how can we know that God can deliver? Can he really do what he says he can? He rests the answer to these questions on one thing ... his identity: "I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel."

If we take a peek at verse 1 (Isaiah 43:1) we get some insight into what God means when he says (in his best Hon Solo voice) "Hey, it's me." The verse reads "thus says Yahweh, he who created you ..., he who formed you ..."

If God created you, can he not also deliver you?

Comfort in Suffering

2 Corinthian 1:4-5
[Christ] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted.

Suffering teaches us to love compassionately, and to empathize with others in their suffering. God understands suffering precisely because he experienced it first hand. He chose to experience it!

The book of Hebrews says "he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted," (Heb 2:17-18) and "we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our own weaknesses." (Heb 4:15) Christ knows, first hand, every kind of suffering, even the suffering of temptation.

I love that Jesus is the kind of leader who leads from the front of the battle lines. He doesn't just lay down the law and say do it. He lays down the law and says, "Come on, let's do this together, I'll go first." What a friend we have in Jesus!

Glory in suffering

1 Peter 4:16
Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

Don't be a shamed when you suffer as a Christian ... why would I be ashamed to suffer this way? The previous verse gives us a clue (1 Peter 4:15) "let none of you suffer as a murder, thief, evildoer or meddler." When you suffer for doing evil you are right to be ashamed, but when people call you Christian in the same way they would shout Murderer! or Thief! then you need not be ashamed. Instead, "glorify God in that name."

Like James, Peter reminds us to "rejoice in so far as you share in Christ's suffering" (1 Peter 4:13). Christian means little Christ; glory to God when they accuse you of being like him!

Steadfastness

James 1:2-4
Count it all joy my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Be joyful when you encounter trials or testing ... this doesn't just mean put on your best smile and fake it. I believe that in order to meet hard stuff with true joy you must have a motivation that is greater than the trial you're facing.

James says that this testing produces steadfastness.

Steadfast: resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering.

Since these trials are a "testing of your faith", then letting steadfastness work in you (have it's full effect) produces unwavering faith. Faith in what? Better question, faith in who? Faith in Jesus. And when you have unwavering faith you will lack nothing (James 1:5-8).

The motivation for approaching trials with joy then is a "future you" who lacks nothing - when I hear those words I hear "you will be content all the time." Can you imagine being completely content no matter where you are, no matter who you are with, and no matter what is going on around you? This is God's promise to those who rest in him.

Hope for the suffering

1 Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This is the promise and the hope to those in Christ who suffer. Suffering is temporary, it lasts but a little while. God knows about suffering, and he has promised to do something about suffering - and he always keeps his promises.

Abraham waited for 25 years for the promise of God to be fulfilled. Twenty five years! This is where we get stuck often ... the week of suffering, the month of suffering, maybe even the year or years of suffering do not seem like "a little while". It seems like forever.

And here is the hope to look to through our suffering ... God himself will fix it. And his promise isn't just a promise of taking away suffering, his promise is much bigger. Not only will he restore, confirm, strengthen and establish, but he will do it "to his eternal glory". That is forever!

Suffering

Romans 8:18
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Paul doesn't say, "compared to" each other, he writes "they are not worth comparing." Just trying to compare them, the act of it, isn't even worth your time.

God's glory is worth it. What he has in store for us is worth it. It's worth the pain, it's worth the daily grind, it's worth the sacrifice.

We believe that finding a way, any way, to stop suffering is worth pursuing, but God says no, don't even bother to stop the suffering. It's so insignificant compared to what he will do that it's not even worth your time.

Don't pursue comfort, don't pursue easier, less-painful life; pursue God.  All that other stuff is a by-line.