1 PETER 2:21

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” 

TO PONDER

Suffering is the pits.  Sickness, acute or chronic conditions that just endlessly drag on, pain, aches in the cold weather, and its not just the physical.  Mental illness, stress, depression, anxiety can plague our day and we wonder where God is.  Spiritual dryness that goes on for months, doubts that cripple us, attacks from the enemy when we are our weakest.  Watching others suffer.  Our emotions become exhausted and fragile.  

But suffering can also be transformative.  It grows us into who we are as we look outside ourselves to a transformative God.  Sometimes I hate the long slow journeys of healing in my life, but when I look back, I appreciate how they have given me strength, closeness to God, dependence on Jesus, a strong foundation that gets me through the dry times in my faith.  I hold on to them like a dear friend.  Like Jesus held on to his Heavenly Father in his suffering times.  He knows… he is with us. 

PRAYER

Jesus, you are with me in my suffering, your hand is upon me always, may I release my spirit and body to you daily, as I die to self and rise to you, and follow in your steps. Amen 

Today's devotion written by Barb Niczynski, LifeWay Illawarra