Suffering

Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me? 
John 18:11

In order to have sympathetic God, we must have a 
suffering Savior, for true sympathy comes from under-
standing another person's hurt by suffering the same
affliction. Therefore we cannot help others who suffer
without having known a great cost within ourselves.

The most comforting of David's psalms were squeezed
from his life by suffering, and if Paul had not been given
'a thorn in his flesh,' we would have missed much of the
heartbeat of tenderness that resonates through so many
of his letters. 

If you have surrendered yourself to Christ, your present
circumstanced that seem to press you to the ground, are
forming you into His image and also giving you a mes-
sage that will bring comfort to many. LB Cowman

Reader, I would also add that God the Father is making
us into a fit Bride for His Son. As we share in a small
part of His sufferings we are not only able to understand
a little more His terrible suffering for us on the cross, the
love that put Him there, but we are also being molded into
His image. We will not be unequally yoked with Him as
His Bride through all of eternity. Does that not put suf-
fering into a different light?

Take time to go back into your life and list the sorrows
and sufferings that you have experienced. Is there a
pattern that emerges? Then list what came out of the
valleys you walked through. For me it has been a much
deeper relationship with the One my heart loves best.